


Part 1, The Occupation (Rewrite)

by peldarjoi



Series: Terrorists Don't Get to Be Heroes [6]
Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Bajorans, Canon-Typical Violence, Cardassians, F/M, Gen, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Non-Explicit Sex, Original Character(s), PG13 Torture, Rewrite, The Cardassian Occupation of Bajor, The Occupation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-10-11
Packaged: 2020-01-04 23:30:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 90,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18353963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peldarjoi/pseuds/peldarjoi
Summary: A young Bajoran gives everything in a fight for her people's freedom.(This is a rewrite of a work I posted here a few years ago.)





	1. This Was the Resistance

_9364, Bajor (2362, Earth calendar)_

Kee’s earring wobbled gently against her neck with each movement. She still wasn’t used to feeling it hanging from her ear even after having it there for two weeks. By Bajoran tradition, she shouldn’t even be wearing one yet, not until her fourteenth birthday, still almost three years off. But with the boot of the Cardassian Union so heavy on her people, many traditions just didn’t seem so important anymore. Her new friends in the Resistance had decided that if she was old enough to fire a phaser like them, she was old enough to wear an earring like them.

She caught her mind wandering again and refocused her attention on the task at hand. Their target was a small, six-man Cardassian post deep in the thick Joralla forest, the location where the sensor grid for this part of the Hill Provinces was operated. Their goal was to disable the hub, taking down this entire section of the grid for at least a couple of weeks until it could be rebuilt. It wasn’t much, but sometimes it was all the Resistance had.

The phaser rifle she’d been practicing with for the last month rested gently on the thick, moss-covered fallen tree trunk that she hid behind next to Walo. She gently traced the lines of the phaser’s grip with her thumb but forced herself to stop, she didn’t want him to see her fidget and report back to Ren that she couldn’t keep her cool. The same way she forced her breaths to come slow and steady even though her heart pounded.

The enemy was so close. She’d grown up fearing them as the ultimate authority. To cross their path was foolish. To stand up to them was dangerous. And to attack them was a death sentence. But when she’d had a chance to join the Resistance, she’d jumped at it. Demanded, even, that they let her join. If she failed today, if they realized what a scared little girl she really was, there was no way they’d let her stay with them. The boys that had joined the cell with her were all older than she was, when they got their first mission, she was sure they wouldn’t choke.

Once again, she returned her attention to the enemy at the bottom of the small slope. She focused on their uniforms. They, at least, were just objects, pieces of rubberized armor to shoot. They weren’t living beings, just uniforms. Uniforms she’d watched beat people to death, uniforms that had taken her father away. She consciously relaxed her shoulders, shifting her phaser rifle slightly to keep her target within the scope. Walo, on the other hand, was as motionless as a stone.

There was no reason to worry, so far everything had gone as planned. Oardoli had created a distraction while Ren used an access code Kee’s uncle, Joial, had lifted from a Cardassian computer, and slipped inside to plant three bombs. The two soldiers guarding the entrance were now back at their posts, unaware that there was an intruder inside. They were the ones Kee and Walo now held in their sights.

Kee flexed her fingers and fought to calm the anxiety that continued to build. How long did it take to plant a couple of bombs anyway? Of course, Kee knew it was more complicated than that. He had to avoid being detected until after the charges were in place. If anyone had a chance to send out a distress call, reinforcements would be on top of them before they could get away. Patience had never been her strong suit, but she was beginning to understand that she’d have to learn.

The Cardassians below moved around to keep warm. Not that it was all that cold, Kee wasn’t even wearing a jacket today, but Cardassians had such a narrow comfort range. One of them had found a spot to stand in where the sun was able to break through the forest canopy, but the other continued to roam. Even their own biology declared that they didn’t belong here.

Somewhere deep inside of her was the nagging little voice reminding her that the Prophets teach peace and nonviolence. It had been there ever since she joined, and this was the moment she was to cross the line. _Violence begets violence._ She’d been taught. _The Prophets smile on those who remain peaceful despite adversity._ Her throat tightened at the thought of becoming abhorrent in their eyes. But she silenced that voice by allowing hatred to bubble up within her and soon it was gone.

The Cardassians suddenly reacted to the sound of phaser fire inside. Kee’s heart pounded but she breathed slowly like Ren had taught her and pressed the trigger. An orange beam lanced forward but her aim was slightly off and she only hit the target in the leg. He dove for cover. Walo had already dispatched his target and turned to fire on the injured one. Kee moved quickly, firing repeatedly until she hit him before Walo had a chance to fix her mistake.

A small piece of her mind registered that she’d taken a life.

 _Don’t belong here._ She reminded herself.

Just then Ren appeared, firing behind him into the building. As Kee and the other two laid down cover fire he bolted for the trees. Two more Cardassians returned fire from inside. The countless hours she’d spent training for this at Ren’s side took over and she held them off.

A blast hit the tree just below where Kee’s phaser rested, sending chunks of wood and splinters flying. She turned away, but immediately went back to fire again, together she and Walo pinned the Cardassians inside.

Ren’s voice came over the comm, _“Burn!”_ That was the signal. She and Walo ducked down and covered their heads just as a wave of fire and debris washed over. The blast was so powerful, the tree trunk rolled toward them a little bit then settled back into its place.

After the fragments had stopped raining down on them and her hearing had returned, she heard Ren on the comm again, _“Everybody still with us?”_

Walo looked her over quickly and spoke for the two of them, “Yeah, we’re alright.”

Oardoli’s voice crackled over the comm, _“I’m here.”_

Kee looked back toward where the building had been, her heart still racing and ears ringing, to see nothing but charred rubble. Even the bodies were gone, vaporized by the explosion. Walo looked too, scanning the area for survivors. There were none.

She’d seen plenty of violence in her life. In the refugee camps there were murders and beatings on a daily basis, but that was all different from what she’d just been part of.

This was an organized strike.

This made a difference.

This was the Resistance.


	2. Snow and Warmth

_9365, Bajor (2363, Earth calendar)_

Ren dozed propped up against the trunk of a fallen tree, only partially aware of his surroundings. He’d need to be in a pretty deep sleep not to be aware of the cold, damp air around him. He hadn’t intended to fall asleep, but had rigged up a scanner linked to a Cardassian comm unit to work as a rough proximity alarm just in case he did. Kee’s slow, rhythmic breathing, combined with the warmth where she rested against his shoulder had lulled him into this partial sleep.

The scanner’s urgent blinking startled him suddenly and he snapped to instant alertness. A glance down at the screen told him that at least three Cardassians had entered range. He silenced the alarm and nudged Kee awake, blinking away sleep until she saw the scanner’s display.

The two had settled down in a naturally concealed place formed by several trees, the fallen tree they’d been resting against and a tangle of a thorny berry vine. They didn’t need to get away, only remain silent as the searchers made their way through.

Next to him, Kee had hunkered down in their little hollow with her fingers wrapped loosely around her phaser rifle. In the more than year he’d been training her, he always appreciated that no matter how stubborn or argumentative she could get at times, he could always count on her following his instructions to the letter.

The Cardassians passed slowly through the area, shivering stiffly under layers of outerwear.

He’d been surprised to find any patrol activity out here at all this time of year. To a large extent, the Cardassians left them alone during the coldest months of the winter when it was difficult for them to be out in the cold. He and his little shadow had been out making contact with some of their informants when they spotted an unusual number of patrols and decided to make their way back to the rest of the cell.

When he could no longer see the patrols, he watched the blips on the scanner move back out of range. The device only detected the signal from their comm units, but he’d never known a Cardassian soldier to go anywhere without one, so it was a fairly reliable method of detecting the enemy. Just about the time they disappeared from the scanner a strange wump-crack sound echoed through the gorge near them.

Kee glanced at him with her eyebrows wrinkled up against the bridge of her nose, but he didn’t have any explanation. It wasn’t weapons fire or a shuttle crash. It could be an explosion, but not one of theirs. Then a second one, deepening the sense of dread. Definitely an explosion, but from where? The echoes made it impossible to pinpoint. A third and fourth reached them in rapid succession, then silence.

“We need to get back to the others.” He told her quietly as he stood up, careful to avoid getting snagged by the thorns.

* * *

There was a gorge with a river flowing down the middle between them and the rest of their cell. Spanning the gorge were five old, stone bridges at roughly equal intervals from the foot of the mountain up to just below the snowline. 

Before they reached the lowest of the bridges, Ren’s scanner picked up multiple blips up ahead. They crept close enough to see that the Cardassians had the bridge surrounded.

In the summer or fall, they’d be able to cross the stream anywhere, but at this time of year, toward the end of the winter when the temperature was just starting to creep back up, the melting snow from the mountains had turned the stream into a fast-moving river. Dangerous to wade across and even if they did, they’d be soaking wet in air temperature that was barely above freezing.

Kee glanced between the scanner’s display and the dark forest ahead, trying to pinpoint real positions compared to the scanner. She signed the hand gesture to him for “attack” with the question on her face.

He shook his head and made the hand gesture for “too many.” The last thing they needed right now was to let the Cardassians know where they were. He pointed up the mountain, back in the direction they’d come from and she pulled away from their hiding place to begin to backtrack.

He had a sneaking suspicion what those sounds earlier had been. Five bridges, four explosions and one ambush. He wondered if they were trying to catch him specifically, or just whoever’s out here.

* * *

“Do you think those explosions were the other bridges?” Kee asked, she couldn’t think of another explanation for the Cardassian’s behavior.

“Maybe. We’ll find out soon enough.” He said. It was still too dark to see his face and his voice didn’t give away any more information than his words.

As a rule, they didn’t use flashlights unless absolutely necessary. It’s hard to hide from the enemy when you light yourself up like a beacon. So, they’d had to learn to navigate the forest in near complete darkness. She’d spent the first few months stumbling over tree roots, banging her shins into rocks and walking into branches before she got the hang of it. Now she could make it through the forest on a night like this when the clouds were thick enough to block out the light from all of the moons.

“If the other bridges are gone, is there another way across?” She finally asked.

“If the other bridges are blown… there used to be an old, natural bridge formed by the shape of the rock farther up the mountain.”

“One they wouldn’t have blown?”

“There’s a good chance it’s covered by snow right now, and if so, they may not know about it. But we’re not to that point yet.”

She gaped at him in the darkness while being sure to keep up with his brisk pace. The snow was a long way up the mountain, and besides that, crossing a snow-covered rock bridge over icy meltwater…

Ren’s scanner silently blinked at them, notifying them of more patrols.

 _Again?_ She thought.

The two carefully crouched down where they were. As long as they stayed silent and the patrols didn’t come too close, they wouldn’t spot them.

The chill that spread across her skin at the sight of the enemy had nothing to do with the cold air. One sound, one snapped twig or kicked pebble and they’d be found. The brief time she’d been held in Cardassian custody had been bad enough, and she hadn’t even been in the Resistance then. Her name, face and DNA were part of their records now and everyone knew what they did to members of the Resistance.

She knew Ren well enough by now to feel his tension. And if he was anxious about their situation, she should be utterly terrified.

Slowly the patrol passed and Ren waited a long time before beginning their journey again.

* * *

They trudged up the base of the Joralla mountain range on a soggy, mud-slick forest floor. They’d passed another bridge some time ago and, sure enough, it had been blown out. This would impact them in future trips to be bottlenecked into only a single river crossing like this, but he left that to worry about later. Right now, they were getting pushed higher and higher up the mountain in order to avoid the spreading patrols.

The temperature had dropped noticeably. Hopefully it would soon be too cold for the Cardassians to follow, but even taking into account the differences in physiology between Bajorans and Cardassians, the Cardassians had much more sophisticated cold-weather gear than they had. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d ventured to this altitude during the winter.

The whole cell had had to cross one of the many mountain passes the previous summer, but it was pleasantly warm at the time. He smiled at the memory of Kee bounding up the side of the mountain with far more energy than anyone else. Stopping every so often to taunt the slow pace of her elders. Even the thin air didn’t slow her down. The only thing that did was when Oardoli had made her carry her pack for her.

“What are you smiling at?” She said with a sidelong glance.

“Nothing.” He lied.

For the most part, the trees kept the drizzling rain off of them, but every so often a cold wind would slice through, pelting them in the face with the almost-freezing droplets. It was during one of those gusts that Kee shifted her stance to brace against the wind. The slick mud under her feet gave way and she slipped with a gasp. The wet leaves slipped under her and she slid down the slope toward the drop-off. Her fingers dug channels into the mud until she grasped onto a tree root and jerked to a stop.

With her feet dangling in empty space over the gorge, she took a few breaths before craning her neck up to look at him with her lips pressed into a tight line. Through the whole thing, she hadn’t cried out or made any more noise than that first gasp.

He crouched down to reach her, holding onto tree branches to keep from slipping himself. He grasped onto her small, muddy hand and pulled her far enough so she could steady herself against a boulder. Following the pained expression on her face, he saw that a rock embedded in the ground had cut a gash down the side of her calf.

“Let me take a look at it.” He said, slipping the pack off his back to root around for a rudimentary med kit.

“How bad is it?” She said through gritted teeth.

He wiped the bloody mud away. “Looks worse than it is.” He said as he disinfected it.

“Think the Cardassians will go much farther up the mountain?”

“I’m not sure. I’ve never seen them out in these kinds of temperatures in the first place.” He wrapped a bandage around her leg well enough to keep them moving. “But I doubt they’ll go farther than the snowline.”

They carefully made their way back to where she’d slipped. “How’re your shoes?” He asked.

“Dry.” She said wryly, “but I doubt that’ll last long.”

* * *

Kee couldn’t believe she’d stupid slipped on stupid mud. She’d lived with the rain and mud all her life, she knew how not to slip.

Her shin hurt with every step. Not just the cut, but she was pretty sure the bone underneath was bruised. That would have been the least of her problems if she hadn’t been able to catch herself before that drop-off. The gorge wasn’t deep enough for a certain fall to the death, but definitely some broken bones, which would slow them down and could allow the Cardassians to capture them. And then there was the icy water.

Another gust of wind blew sleet into her face. She’d rather have either rain or full snow. Snow, at least, was sort-of dry. This sleet stuff was so wet it carried the cold right through her body and her clothes were getting noticeably wet.

Some distance up the mountain she could see the trees beginning to show signs of snow, their deep green color becoming dusted with white. She would follow Ren faithfully, but began to wonder if they could make it as far as they needed to go. Their trip had been cut short and they’d had to skip their last stop where they would have picked up food for the return trip. They needed to eat and the exertion from climbing the base of the mountain would only make the need that much more urgent.

When it came down to it, hunger was as great an enemy as the Cardassians. No amount of persistence or cunning or dogged determination would save them from starvation.

As much as she examined their situation, though, she couldn’t come up with any other options. They couldn’t stay on this side of the gorge; the patrols would have them cornered shortly. The Cardassians also controlled the area at the base of the foothills where the gorge let out. They couldn’t cross it without a bridge this time of year. They couldn’t fight their way through or go back to the towns. All these options and more she was sure Ren had examined and rejected before committing them to this course.

* * *

Once they passed the snowline, progress was much slower, but it had been several hours since they had seen any sign of patrols. It seemed as though they were completely alone out here.

Every so often, the trees would open up to a view down the mountainside that was both breathtaking and dizzying. Layer after layer of tree-covered hills faded away into the haze of the low-lying clouds and drizzling rain. They sloped downward in a way that felt like one could just lean out and tumble down. Closer to where they stood, the whiteness of the snow that covered everything and along with the grey of the sky, gave the impression of an achromatic photo. The pink in Kee’s cheeks and the green in her eyes almost seemed to be the only color around.

The snow muted all sounds, too, giving an eerie, echoless quality to the forest. The only sound seemed to be the creaky snow under their boots and their heavy breathing from the thin air, but even those sounds were nearly swallowed up by the muffling snow.

The animal trail they’d been following passed by a steep rockface with small trees and ferns hanging onto the side. He knew this area, in the summer there were waterfalls that ran down the wall of rock, across the path, then down the gorge to join with the river. Right now, though, they had turned into ice.

Kee spotted one of them and crossed over to it, staring, almost mesmerized. He’d never seen anything like it either, the waterfall was frozen in place as though it had been flowing a moment ago. She reached out to touch it, just barely brushing her fingers against the ice, transfixed by the sight.

She turned to see his reaction with a delighted smile that lit up her face, the most open emotion he’d ever witnessed from her.

But it vanished just as quickly as the gravity of their situation returned and she shifted back into the hardened soldier he knew she had to become.

Up ahead in a clearing past the trees, he could just barely make out a snow-covered cottage. As they neared, it became apparent that no one had been there in a long time. The door was buried behind a good meter of undisturbed snow. The few windows that weren’t boarded up had a thick sheet of frost covering them, obscuring the dark interior.

“Think anyone’s there?” Kee asked as he tried to see in the window.

“Without heat, I doubt anyone could survive for long in there.” He said and began digging out the door. Kee joined him and they had it clear enough in a few seconds to pry it open and squeeze inside.

There was definitely no one here. It was a single room divided into a kitchen and what had probably been a living area when there had been furniture in it. In the kitchen, the cupboards sat empty without doors covering them.

Kee balled up her hands and breathed into them. It was no warmer in here, but at least they were away from the wind and occasional sleet.

Ren tried the switches on the cooking surface, not really expecting anything to work and made his way over to an old wood-burning stove at the center of the interior. He crouched down to peer inside, finding mostly ash and a few small pieces of charred wood. “Well, now we know where the cupboard doors went.”

He began checking through the cupboards, most of which were as empty as they appeared at first. Finally, at the back of what must have been the sixth one, he found a dented metal pot and thrust it toward Kee as he kept searching.

He didn’t have to tell her what to do with it, she grew up in the refugee camps, she knew how to scrounge for survival. While she headed outside to fill the pot with clean snow, he shook his head at himself. She was _still_ growing up. It had been a long time since he’d given a single thought to her age. She certainly didn’t seem like she was not quite thirteen yet. She’d been by far the most capable and quick-learning recruit he’d ever known.

He leaned way inside a lower corner cabinet to see if anything had been left behind and was rewarded with a package of dehydrated… something. The label had long since been worn off.

With the mystery meal in hand, he managed to locate a mug and bowl that weren’t in any better shape than the pot he’d sent Kee out with.

In the rare time alone, he allowed himself to imagine what her life could have been if their world were different. She should have been bundled up inside a warm house sipping tea with her family instead of out collecting snow to melt just to have water to drink. She should have spent the last year learning art or science or agriculture instead of warfare. Building forts instead of building bombs. Fighting with siblings instead of fighting a genocidal enemy. He hated that she couldn’t have that life and hated the Cardassians all the more for it.

He dug in his pack for a lighter to begin working on starting a fire in the stove. He’d been a teenager himself when he joined, but much closer to adulthood than Kee, and even then, the transition had been a difficult one. Afterwards he’d watched dozens of others go through the exact same thing. Watched them join, train, fight and die. All ages and backgrounds sacrificing their souls and their lives for their one common goal.

He pushed away thoughts of all those who had died and concentrated on coaxing a tiny flame out of the bits of charcoal left in the stove.

* * *

Once they rehydrated it, the mystery food packet appeared to be some kind of winter squash. He and Kee ate out of the same bowl and drank from the same cup as they often did. Any sense of ownership or personal space usually disappeared within months of joining the Resistance.

Kee wiped the last residue out of the bowl and sucked it off her finger while she tucked herself into the blanket they’d found and wrapped around them. The stove’s fire had given out a while ago, so they sat together with their backs against the wall. Ren wrapped an arm around the girl and she scooted in tight against him.

He watched, nearly captivated, as frost formed on the wet interior of the cup.

Long past the point where he was sure she’d fallen asleep, she took a sudden breath as though to say something. Instead, she fell silent. Another couple of normal breaths, then she breathed in sharply again.

When she finally spoke, her voice wasn’t tentative like he had expected after the way she hesitated. Instead she asked boldly, “How do you endure torture?”

The question hit him like she had turned around and punched him in the stomach, but it was a valid one. One that he’d been dreading since the day she’d joined them. He wished he could believe she’d be safe from the horror of Cardassian interrogation, but he knew for a fact that they would and did torture Bajorans as young as thirteen. He couldn’t shelter her from it, and even if he tried, she’d have none of it. If she even suspected he was treating her different because of her age, she’d call him on it.

He’d taught this to other recruits and had gone over telling it to her a hundred times in his head. He knew what to say so he just started reciting slowly from memory. “The pain is overwhelming. There’s no magic way to change that. And it gets to the point where it becomes your entire world.”

She listened in silence without looking up at him.

“You get swept away in an ocean of pain that goes on an infinite distance in every direction and in time. That’s when you’ll grasp for _anything_ … anything to end it.

“What you must do is have a way to anchor yourself to what’s important. And with that, the pain can wash over you and through you without it becoming the entirety of your existence.”

“How do you do that?” She asked in a hushed tone.

“Think of the things and people that matter to you. Right now. Assign a letter or number or word to each and memorize it. Say it in your head again and again every chance you get so that it comes to mind without you even having to think about it. And when the time comes, that code is your anchor, cling to it because your life and many others depend on it.”

“That really works?”

“It works… for long enough. They can take you past the point for any kind of mental discipline to work. The best you can do is hold out long enough to escape or be rescued.” Or die, he didn’t add. “And sometimes they even mistake the code for information.”

A smile flicked across her lips for a fraction of a second and she fell deep into thought. There was still much to teach on this subject, but she needed to process this part first, so he left her to her thoughts.

* * *

Kee had fallen asleep thinking of the things that mattered most to her. Her parents and brothers came to mind first. Her uncle, the others in the Resistance that had come to be everything to her. But the hike up the mountain had been so exhausting she was asleep only part way through her assignment.

A blade of sunlight sliced across her vision and she woke to the bite of cold on her nose and cheeks. She saw that the rising sun shining directly on one of the windows had temporarily cleared it of frost and through it she could see clear blue sky.

Ren was still sound asleep with his head propped at an uncomfortable angle against the wall and his arm tight around her. He often joked that he kept her around as a portable heating unit. Even so, the temperature within their blanket could hardly be considered ‘warm’, only warm enough not to freeze to death.

She watched the little bit of sky she could see through the window. It was so clear, it looked like a flat, blue canvas. At least that would mean no sleet or wind, but a clear day this time of year meant the temperature would drop even more. It was probably back down well below freezing already and would stay there without cloud cover to trap warmth close to the ground. They needed to get back to the lowlands soon.

Something too far away to see glinted in the sunlight against the blue backdrop. Her heart jumped, ships didn’t fly this close to the mountains unless the Cardassians were searching for someone.

Ren’s rigged scanner sat on the floor at their feet just outside the blanket. She twisted to reach out and snatched it up, pulling it inside. With stiff fingers, she lifted it up out from the top of the blanket where she could see the readout and scanned the area around them.

She nudged Ren awake, “There’s a search drone out there.” She held up the scanner for him to see for himself. “Only two kellipates out.”

They scrambled to their feet while throwing off the blanket. Cold rushed in, needling her skin even through her layers of clothes. She had her pack and weapon slung over her shoulder by the time she reached the door and Ren was just behind her.

With a quick check on the scanner to see that the drone was far enough away, they squeezed through the door and bolted for the trees. If the Cardassians looked close enough, they’d be able to tell that someone had been here and follow their footprints back into the forest, but tree cover was their best option. Without being able to detect their biosigns, the drone would be looking for thermal signatures, but the snow-covered trees would naturally disperse them except at very close range.

* * *

“Watch the drone’s flight pattern.” Ren told her as he tried not to hover over her shoulder while she watched the distant drone through her phaser’s scope.

“It’s repeating the same pattern over and over in different areas.” She said intently.

“Good, that’s an indication that it’s on an automated search. Watch it until you can predict its exact movements, adjust for distance, lead the target and shoot it down.”

“Won’t that let them know where we are?” She asked without taking her eyes off of the target.

“They’ll know where we are, but by the time they get here, we’ll be gone.” And they couldn’t go anywhere with that thing up in the sky.

He watched in silence as she moved the weapon back and forth to keep the drone in sight. From the side, he could see the clear lens of her eye while she directed her focus on the craft. Soon, her movements became smooth as she anticipated the drone’s course.

“I have it.” She said, finally.

“Fire any time.” He caught himself holding his breath. If she missed, the drone would immediately zero in on their position. If that happened, there was little chance they’d lose it before the Cardassians arrived.

She let out a slow, nearly silent breath and pressed the trigger. A short blast released from the weapon into the sky leaving a trail of steam behind it in the frozen air. He couldn’t see the drone, but watched her as she kept her eyes on the scope. After a split second, she angled the phaser down to track the drone’s descent and finally lowered it completely. “It’s down.” She let out a shaky breath and swallowed hard.

“Let’s get moving.” He stood and hurried up the snowy incline with Kee trudging along at his side. The animal paths were completely covered by snow that was rapidly accumulating. Already ankle-deep, it was starting to come over the tops of their boots and would soon begin soaking into their pants. Prophets help them if it got to their knees.

The Cardassians could be there any second. The drone would have recorded their location in the last moments before it went down and standard procedure would be to scan the immediate vicinity moving outward. Their scattering field would mask them from passive scans, but a direct scan could reveal their location. They needed to be far enough away from there by then that they’d only be swept passively.

He stumbled over something invisible below the snow and turned to help Kee over it. She stopped in the middle of clamoring over it at the distinctive sound of a skimmer. She hesitated for only a moment before speeding up their hurried pace.

* * *

The skimmer’s search pattern focused first on the location they’d been at when they shot down the drone, then moved to the cabin, then the pilot began a methodical search of the surrounding area, just imprecise enough to indicate that it was not an automated craft. The problem was that a real person was much harder to evade than a computer. And no matter how fast they ran, every pass brought the skimmer closer and closer.

She’d seen Ren leave something behind in the cabin, but hadn’t seen what it was at the time. “What was that device you left?” She said between hard breaths.

“We can use it to put out false biosigns with a remote activation.” He said among the puffs of condensed air.

“A decoy.” She breathed.

He only nodded, watching the river bank closely. The gorge had flattened out enough that the river was only down a small slope from them. The edges were covered in thin ice, but most of the water moved too fast to ice up.

She hoped they could cross soon and get back down out of this snow. With every step, she had to lift her feet up high to clear the surface, then tromp back down through, at which point the snow would cave in around her lower leg. Her feet were completely numb, her pants were wet and the skin on her legs was so cold it burned. But all of that was better than what the Cardassians would do to them if they caught them, so she pushed on without complaint.

“There.” He finally said.

Up ahead, the river narrowed enough that the snow built up to cover it all the way across in some places. The result were eerie frozen tunnels that were bright within from refracted sunlight. Somewhere beyond that was something that looked more solid, darker underneath.

Staying under the tree cover, Ren stopped and set his pack down on a snowbank to dig through it.

The pitch of the skimmer’s engines increased, telling her that it was moving closer again. While Ren located the control device and concentrated on its settings. She studied the bridge and the space between it and them. Assuming he planned to make a break for it as soon as he initiated the false biosigns, it was not going to be an easy sprint.

“No matter what happens, it won’t take them long to realize we’re not really there. We need to get across as fast as we can.”

“I don’t think that bridge had a railing.” She said warily.

He glanced up at it, then back down. There wasn’t much that could be done about that at this point. He slid the strap of his pack back onto his shoulder and glanced at her. “Ready?”

Her heart pounded harder than it had when she’d shot down the drone, her knees felt weak, her body was stiff from the cold. She was definitely not ready, but she nodded anyway.

He pressed the activation key and watched for the skimmer to change direction toward the cabin. The moment it did, he said “Go!”

She forced her tired legs into action, plowing through the snow as fast as she could. She could feel the texture of the landscape under the snow go from forest dirt to round river stones that slid out from under her feet. Finally, she reached what felt like cobblestone. As they climbed up the arch of the bridge, she could only hope that the fresh snow would provide enough traction to keep them from slipping and falling into the ice water.

The sound of phaser fire behind them made her stop at the crest of the bridge. She turned to see the skimmer firing down into the cabin that was already in flames. Kee spared a glance at Ren, not wanting to ponder the thought that that could have been them. And could still be.

They hurried as fast as they dared the rest of the way across the bridge, one good scan of the wreckage would tell the Cardassians that there were no biological remains.

Going downhill was definitely more treacherous than uphill. Kee’s foot landed on a slick patch of ice and she was already too far into the step to change her footing. Instead of trying to catch herself, she dropped down to slide the rest of the way on her hip and thigh. She reached the bank on the other side and stood to continue her run through the snow, proud of herself for the move that looked like she had planned it.

Ren was just a half step behind. The trees weren’t far away, but they seemed too far. Her legs ached. Every step felt like it would be the last she could take. Then she somehow forced another and another. By the time they reached the safety of the trees, her legs were shaking so hard she felt like she would collapse.

But he urged her on, and rightly so. When the Cardassians resumed their search, they’d spot their tracks and they had to be far away by then. At least now they were traveling downhill, charging through the snow, slipping and catching each other as they went, desperate to get back below the snowline where their tracks wouldn’t lead the enemy right to them.

Before long, the snow was back to boot-height and it was slightly easier to move forward, though clods of snow still clung to her frozen-stiff pants. Her legs screamed in pain inside and out, but she forced them to obey. Her lungs ached from the frigid air, but still they had to keep going.

Just as they left the snow behind, the alert from the scanner sounded. She and Ren skidded to a halt, searching for forms in the dark. She was about to ask if he knew where they were when a pair of hands locked down on her from behind. Another one came from somewhere and tackled Ren to the ground.

Her muscles were stiff from the cold, but she willed them to move. She lifted her leg and smashed her heel into the Cardassian’s knee. He grunted painfully and his grip loosened enough for her to turn toward him.

Mostly through muscle memory, since her lower half was so numb, she drove her knee into his gut. Then she reached both hands around the side of his head and pulled his head to the side with all of her body weight. A sickening snap was her reward and the Cardassian went down.

Kee whipped around to check on Ren who was still struggling with his opponent. Her hands went to her weapon, but she didn’t have a clear shot. They grappled closer to the edge, but there was nothing she could do to help him. As she watched, he threw them both to the ground at the edge of the drop-off. He reached out to grab a tree root to steady himself, but the Cardassian tumbled over and down into the gorge.

While he got to his feet, she turned to take up the survival pack from the one she’d fought and together they hurried away. Ren had his scanner in hand and she saw that it showed several more blips moving in from lower elevations.

Their one advantage was that they knew the terrain. There were hills and valleys and clefts and bluffs… there was a bluff up ahead. Ren had already turned toward it. Sprinting up hill was almost more than she could manage, but there were no other options. A fact that was driven home when a phaser blast hit the ground at her heels.

When they reached the top of the hill and the edge of the fern-covered bluff, Ren turned to shoot behind him while she skidded down the steep slope partly on her heels, partly on her back, then he threw himself down after. The moment her feet touched the bottom, they practically flew into the dense forest, leaving their pursuers trying to catch up.

* * *

Kee stopped and bent over with her hands on her knees, “I can’t keep going, I can’t.”

Ren stopped and checked his scanner hesitantly. “Okay. But only for a little bit.” They’d lost the Cardassians that had been immediately on their tail, but there were still a lot of them out there.

She dropped to her knees and threw down the survival pack in front of her to begin digging around for the heating unit the former owner would have to have had. When she found it, she handed the rest of the supplies to Ren to find what else they could use.

Her stiff, cold fingers fumbled with the controls but soon it glowed softly and a wonderful heat poured out of it. She stretched her legs out next to it while holding her hands over it.

The heat almost burned her fingertips, but it felt so good to have any sensation in them at all. When she had feeling back, she reached down to pull off one boot, then her soaking wet sock. She draped it over one side of the heating unit to dry. It was not just a matter of comfort, but of safety. Frostbite could be as much of a danger as starvation.

While she waited, she began carefully unwrapping the bandage he’d tied around her leg the day before. Without a word, he handed her a dermal regenerator. She set to work healing the gash and watched him remove his boot and sock as well, keeping a close eye on the scanner display.

When it was finished, she tucked the medical device into a pocket in her pack where she could find it again easily and retrieved her now-dry sock. Warmth from the sock enveloped her frigid toes as she slid it on and up her ankle. She relished the feeling while it lasted. Her foot would be cold again soon and the wetness from her boot would soak back into the sock to make it damp again. But not sopping wet at least.

She’d just finished putting her other sock on the heating unit when Ren handed her a stack of ration packs. Her stomach twisted with hunger at the sight. Tempting as it was to tear into the entire stack, she took one off the top and stashed the rest in her pack. She hurriedly broke the wafer into pieces and tore open the wrapper.

No matter how bad it tasted, she gladly took the first bite. The texture was… she never could find the words to describe these things. They were hard and chewy and crumbly all at the same time. They also tasted mildly of fish, which she hated. But she was so happy to finally have something to eat that she ate it quickly, which took a significant amount of chewing.

“That was quite a move back there on the bridge.” Ren said through his own chewing.

“When I slipped? Yeah, I did _not_ do that in purpose!” She said with more of a laugh than it warranted.

Ren joined in with a chuckle as he stuffed the empty wrapper into his pack and eyed the scanner again. “We need to get going.”

She obediently packed up, deactivated the heating unit and tucked it into her pack. Standing up was another matter altogether. In just those few minutes, her muscles had tightened up from their two full days of mountain hiking. She groaned as she maneuvered her legs under her and saw that he was just as stiff standing up.

Hunger was sated for the moment, her extremities were somewhat less cold and they’d hardly slept in the past fifty-two hours, but they still had some distance to cover. Soon, they could start signaling the rest of the cell and pinpoint a meeting place, and even after that, they may still have to keep moving quickly. For now, all she could do was keep trudging on and thank the Prophets they were still alive.


	3. First Time, Not the Last

_9366 Bajor (2364, Earth calendar)_

The old pre-occupation hospital was barely recognizable as a building anymore. Vining forest plants covered much of the structure with a tangled mess of stems and leaves. Tree roots had split through thick stone walls in their incessant pursuit of new soil. Kee couldn’t entirely tell, but it looked like there was an entire wing that had collapsed and become just another piece of the forest.

Most of Bajor’s medical professionals had grown old and died over the decades with few citizens educated to a high enough level to replace them. And those Bajorans fortunate enough to have such an education were almost always children of collaborators, placed in Cardassian facilities to collaborate with Cardassian doctors. As a result, there were many of these places all over Bajor, abandoned monuments to what was once a thriving civilization that Kee would never know.

Approaching the structure at Ren’s side as always and Ilwea and Oardoli right behind, they finally found the main entrance and entered with phasers ready.

The dark interior of the building did seem to be abandoned. Old, dirty furniture lay around haphazardly, parts of some walls had fallen down, the windows were all broken out with vines climbing in to reclaim the building back into the forest. Their slow, cautious footsteps were the only sound, the cover of vines seemed to mask the usual forest noises from outside. All of which gave it a decidedly haunted sense that sent a chill down her spine that had nothing to do with the cool, damp air.

Their anonymous, off-world contact had sent them intel that there was something going on here. Nothing specific, just a reference to the location with no other details. But it looked like, for the first time ever, he might be wrong. Still, they would diligently search every empty room. As they passed the collapsed section of the building Ren motioned Oardoli and Kee down the corridor the right while he and Iwea took another one.

A little farther in, that corridor split again and Oardoli nodded for Kee to take the one closer to her. Within a few seconds, she was alone.

She paused for a moment to listen, but found only silence. She clicked her flashlight on to see that the fine layer of dust on the floor didn’t appear to have been disturbed, then clicked it back off and moved to the first room to begin her search.

She passed the flashlight across the interior of the room. The bed still had sheets on it. A tray with medical supplies sat neatly but dirty, on the table next to the bed. Paneling hung off the wall in sheets where the adhesive had surrendered to the dampness of the air. Leaves and plant debris were piled up around the edges of the room. A shudder washed across her skin, she could almost imagine ghosts of the former patients still lingering here.

There was a flash of light off to the side and Kee swung her phaser around toward it, ready to fire, only to find that a mirror had caught the beam from her flashlight. She breathed out slowly to calm her pulse as she scolded herself for being so jumpy.

With her body still trembling a bit from the adrenaline surge, she backed out of the room to check the next one. Room after room it was the same thing. Out-of-date medical equipment, broken and dirty, but no Cardassians. Not any trace that anyone had stepped foot here in fifty years.

After the last room in the row, she was about to turn back when she noticed a partially concealed doorway peeking out from behind a partition. She considered ignoring it, there was definitely no one here. It was probably just a utility closet, anyway. But Ren’s lectures on thoroughness and attention to detail came forcefully to her. Her shoulders drooped for a moment before she gave in and started toward the unassuming door, mentally griping at him for making her do this.

It was a manual slide door, but when she tried it, she found it was locked. A lock could mean something more than just cleaning supplies inside.

The mechanism was unsophisticated enough that she was able to slip her blade inside and break it open.

Caught up with the mystery, she slid her knife back into its place on her thigh and moved the door open. It wasn’t a storage closet inside, the little bit of light that cut through the darkness revealed a staircase that went down into a basement.

They hadn’t known this place had a basement. That was that much more they’d have to search.

She knew she should signal the others that she’d found something unexpected, but decided to check it out first. The basement was probably just as deserted as the main floor anyway. With a quick look behind her to be sure she was still alone, she stepped down into the darkness.

By the time she’d reached the landing half way down, she could see that there was another door at the bottom, and worse, there was light breaking through under the door. Her common sense screamed at her to call for the others, but curiosity won out, compelling her onward.

It was probably just security lights left over from when the hospital was still in use or something like that, she reasoned and ignored the part of her reminding her that it had been fifty years, nothing should be working at all down here.

With a barely-controlled tremble in her hand, she slid the lower door open and nosed her phaser through.

The light was coming from somewhere down the narrow hall that ran to her left and right, creating stark shadows in the rough texture of the concrete walls. The low ceiling was lined with pipes and conduits, some of which ran the length of the hallway and others disappeared into the walls or ceiling.

She took a few steps toward the light but stopped dead when she heard voices up ahead. Muffled and indistinct, but most definitely Cardassian. Now was the time to alert the others, but a quick glance at her comm unit told her it was dead. She backed up toward the safety of the stairwell, but whirled around to see a Cardassian coming toward her out of the dark at the other end of the hallway with his phaser already drawn.

She whipped her phaser around to fire at him, but he shot first. His beam landed directly in the middle of her chest, but where she expected pain to cut through her body, she only felt numb. Her fingers clawed at the wall as she stumbled backward.

Her last terrifying thought was the realization that they were taking her alive, but blackness wound itself around her mind before she hit the floor.

* * *

When Kee woke it took her groggy mind a moment to comprehend her surroundings.

Sharp pain shot down her arms from her wrists. She couldn’t feel her fingers. Her shoulders ached like the joints was being torn apart and she slowly realized that she was hanging from a pair of wrist restraints, the floor just beyond the reach of her feet. She strained to lessen the weight on her wrists, but even the smallest movement was agonizing.

Fear seized her heart in an icy grip as her vision cleared and the rest of the room resolved around her. In contrast to where she’d been before, this room looked clean and modern, brightly lit by Cardassian standards. She couldn’t even tell if she was still in the same building. Trays of immaculate tools sat on a nearby table. A monitor on the wall showed her vital signs and she could see the exact moment her heart rate had spiked a moment ago. She was alone in the room, but knew that wouldn’t last.

This was it, the experience she’d been dreading since joining the Resistance. She’d be tortured either until she was rescued or until she gave up information on her friends. Ren and the others would be looking for her, she only hoped for their sake that they could get to her in time. The fear of betraying them was much more terrifying than anything the Cardassians could do to her. At least, she thought so in her inexperience.

She began rehearsing what Ren had taught her: _allow the pain to pass through, don’t let it become part of you. It’s temporary, it is not the whole of your existence._

The door opened, pulling her mind from her thoughts. A glinn and an assistant entered. 

“Ah, you’re awake.” He said, greeting her with a friendly tone of voice meant to throw her off.

Kee remained silent with her eyes fixed ahead.

He stepped into her line of sight, “I think we both know what’s going to happen here, so I’ll give you one and only one opportunity to save yourself a great deal of agony. Tell me how many of your companions are here and what they know about this facility and you’ll receive a quick execution.”

She continued to stare past him but her vital signs on the monitor betrayed her. Brain waves, heart rate, everything spiked. But if he expected this to be easy because of her age, he was going to be disappointed. Ren had trained her. She began repeating her code in her mind: _rekja j 2 uranak 53 4 7 kejal vunek… rekja j 2 uranak 53…_

“Have it your way, then.” The glinn said lightly, turning away to his assistant.

The muscles through her jaw and neck tightened as she awaited her fate and she fought for focus.

She stared at the ceiling, which looked like the same rough concrete she’d seen before.

When he turned back to her, he was holding some small device in each hand, but she forced herself not to look. He stepped close enough to her that she could smell his foul Cardassian musk, but she couldn’t turn away.

He brushed the collar of her shirt away and set something cold and metallic against her skin on her right collarbone. As soon as he let go, tiny claws dug into her skin and pulled tight. She flinched at the pain, but managed not to cry out.

By then he was already tugging her shirt away from her pants and placed the second device low on her left hip. When it dug in to the sensitive skin, she couldn’t restrain a small yelp of pain, but she knew that was only the beginning.

Kee closed her eyes to shut out the panic. _Allow the pain to pass through. It flows around you as you’re secured by your anchor._

* * *

It had been almost an hour since anyone had seen or heard from Kee. It was a big place, possible they’d just missed her, but Ren had bumped into both of the other two multiple times already. Something was wrong.

He signaled her silently on the comm again with no response. A flush of worry passed across his shoulders, experience had taught him to anticipate the worst. If anything had happened to her… he couldn’t stand the thought. She was a remarkable girl, so much potential, and not just for the Resistance, but for a life sometime in the future when the Cardassians were gone.

With his comm still in his hand, he signaled the others to meet up with him. They both responded in the affirmative. Only a few minutes later, Oardoli stalked silently up to him, shaking her head to the unspoken question on his face.

“Check outside.” He said quietly. If she’d left, willingly or otherwise, there should be some sign of it.

“If she’s been beamed away…” She let the rest of the statement unsaid. If she’d been beamed away, they’d have no chance of finding her.

“I know.”

With the same worry he felt, she made her way back toward the entrance just as Ilwea arrived. Together they began systematically searching empty rooms beginning with Kee’s last known location, certain now that the enemy was here.

Inside the third room the two men stopped suddenly at a sound from the hallway outside. It was possible it was Oardoli coming back. Listening for it again, Ren rejected the idea, she moved much more silently.

Almost in unison, he and Ilwea backed up against the wall on either side of the door. With a look, he could see that Ilwea was in agreement, it sounded like a Cardassian patrol. Ren slid down into a squat ever so slowly behind a table and Ilwea did the same behind a washbasin stand.

Slow, heavy and measured footsteps paused at the doorway with the faint quavering sound of a hand scanner. The sound changed strength ever so slightly as the Cardassian passed it around the room, finally moving on.

Ren slowly let out the breath he’d been holding. Where had he come from? There had to be a part of this facility they hadn’t searched yet.

At least they had an idea what had happened to Kee. But where she was was still a question and whether she was still alive.

As if in answer to his question, a dreadful scream echoed through the place. It was her. He squeezed his eyes shut at the thought of what they were doing to her. She was here, though, and alive, for now. They just had to get to her before it was too late.

* * *

 _rekja j 2 uranak 53 4 7 kejal vunek…_ she repeated to herself again and again. She’d had her share of injuries over the last two years with the resistance, but this pain had been far more intense than she could have imagined.

Using a remote activation, the devices he’d attached to her skin allowed him to apply pain through her body between the two points. Tears seeped out of the corners of her eyes and she assured herself that it was only a physiological response, she was _definitely_ not crying. She gasped for breath and focused on her anchor, detaching her mind from her body like she’d been taught.

“Let’s hurry this up.” The glinn said to his assistant, clearly irritated that he had been unable to break her as quickly as he’d expected.

Pressure from a hypospray on her neck followed by a hiss. Her stomach suddenly heaved and she barely kept herself from vomiting. Her head swam and she squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them, the walls seemed like they were swaying in and out.

“Now, let’s try this again. What do you know about this facility?”

To her surprise she found herself laughing. A side effect of the drug? The glinn grabbed the back of her hair and pulled her head back to look at her face. “And what do you find funny here?”

“You and your _tus_ buddies can’t even break a thirteen-year-old girl.” She laughed again, but she still couldn’t fathom why. The glinn pressed a knife to her throat and she closed her eyes, expecting to feel it bite deep into her flesh but instead only felt it graze the surface of her skin as he pulled it away. He threw her head back forward and circled around in front of her.

Without really understanding why, she taunted him again, “Picking on a little girl, your family must be so proud.”

He swung his arm up and struck her across the face with the back of his hand. Pain exploded across her face and through her head. For a few moments, the world narrowed down to that spot from where the pain radiated. When the worst of it had past, she felt a trickle of blood run down her cheek. Then he told his assistant, “Again. Maximum dose.”

Once more, she felt the hypospray and the room spun out of control. She closed her eyes to keep from feeling dizzy but it was no use, like the dizzy games the children back at the refugee camp used to play. Only here, there was no stopping. She clung again to her anchor, _rekja j 2 uranak 53 4 7 kejal vunek…_

Her entire existence was summed up in that code. Her father had loved the spice _rekja_ , the initial for her mother’s name, her brothers were twins, _uranak_ meant protect, 9353 was the year she was born, she was one of four that joined the resistance together, Bajor was the 7th planet in the system, _kejal_ meant freedom and _vunek_ represented the Prophets’ temple.

He stood before her with his control pad, his thumb on the activation switch. “Again, what do you know about this facility?” He said slowly. When she didn’t reply he pressed the button and burning pain filled her abdomen like fire was consuming her from the inside. She screamed until she ran out of breath then he switched it back off.

He leaned close to her ear. “ _Where_ is Ren Larno?”

Ren. His face appeared in her mind. He would be searching for her by now. She spoke weakly without intending to, “Ren….” Then clamped down on the thought and turned back to her anchor, _rekja j 2 uranak…_ Pain again, she screamed. How could she still be alive when her body was burning like this? Then it stopped again just long enough to take a breath, then more pain until her throat was raw from screaming.

She was repeating her anchor in her mind nonstop now. The pain was her entire world, it surrounded her. There was no forest, no hospital, no basement room, only pain and the disembodied voice of a Cardassian tormentor. It was more than she could bear. She couldn’t hold on much longer. The only thing she had left to cling to was the constant chant: _rekja j 2 uranak 53 4 7 kejal vunek…_ Without realizing it, her lips began to move, following the words in her mind, “4 7 kejal vunek…”

The glinn leaned in closer to hear.

“rekja j 2 uranak 53 4 7 kejal vunek…” Her voice was barely audible but he grasped onto the apparent information and jotted it down onto a padd.

“It seems she’s not as strong as she thought.” He said to his assistant.

“Shall I process the body?” The assistant asked.

“No, keep her alive for now. At least until we know whether this will pan out. It could still be nothing but drugged ramblings.” With that he walked out of the room with the assistant following, but Kee had already slipped away the darkness of her mind by then.

* * *

They’d had to wait, listening to Kee’s screams, for the patrol to leave this wing of the hospital. He’d known this would happen to her eventually, but to listen helplessly while she was tortured was possibly the worst thing he’d experienced with the Resistance. He would have traded places with her in an instant if he could.

The fact that it had gone one for so long meant that she’d properly taken to heart what he’d taught her, but it gave him no comfort at all. She was a smart, clever, passionate soldier and maybe the next leader of his cell. He had to save her.

The moment it was safe, he and Ilwea crept out into the hall. They listened to pinpoint Kee’s location, but it was like it was coming from all around them. She was somewhere where her voice fed through ventilation ducts or something like that.

He began searching for another section of the facility they hadn’t found yet. A shaft of light broke through the vine-covered windows, lighting up an area of the floor to reveal faint footprints in the fine dust. He’d know Cardassian boot prints anywhere, some were his own from when he’d checked through here the first time, but along with them were a smaller set, they had to be Kee’s.

With a glance behind him to be sure the patrol hadn’t returned, he shouldered his phaser and pulled out his flashlight, shielding it with his hand, so it would only light up enough area for them to follow her footprints.

As they neared the end of the hall, the Cardassian prints made a U-turn back toward the entrance, but hers continued. In the dim light, he could see a door back in the recessed shadows. Small, plain, it looked like a storage close, but the footprints definitely led right to it.

By the time they had it open and found the staircase, he realized it had been several minutes since he’d heard her. A sick felling twisted his stomach as he descended. The sudden silence could mean several different things, all of them bad.

He stopped at the bottom of the stairs while Ilwea was still several steps up and clicked his flashlight back on, revealing a pair of trip sensors just about knee-height. If she hadn’t seen them when she came down, she would have triggered an alert, signaling them that there was an intruder. He glanced back up at Ilwea to make sure he saw it too, and stepped over the activation area.

The next door led to a narrow basement hallway that joined a maze of hallways and access shafts, then a series of storerooms. Ren waved Ilwea back into a recessed doorway when he spotted a Cardassian guarding one of the rooms. That could be her.

Shooting him with a phaser would alert them to their presence. He’d like to be at least back to the ground level before that happened. He’d have to do this up close and personal. He pulled a length of wire out of his pocket and wrapped the ends around each hand and signaled Ilwea to cover him.

With Kee’s safety his primary concern, he stepped out of hiding and rushed toward the guard. A quick arm movement knocked the guard’s phaser to the side and Ren hooked the wire under the guard’s chin and pulled back with all his strength.

While the Cardassian grasped uselessly at the wire and at Ren’s hands, Ilwea ducked inside the room. With the Cardassian’s fight weakening, Ren was able to shift the position of his arms and jerked the guard’s head hard to the side. The moment he went limp, Ren dragged his body inside and dropped him.

What he found inside was a horrific. Kee was hanging from the ceiling by her wrists, her head slumped forward, her small body bruised and bloodied. The only indication that she was even alive was the console displaying a weak heartbeat.

“Kee!” He said, rushing toward her. He lifted her up into his arms and her head lolled onto his chest. Ilwea grabbed a laser scalpel from a tray to cut through the chain, releasing Kee’s arms.

“We need to get her out of here.” Ren said unnecessarily.

Ilwea was already back at the door, panning his phaser across the hallway and nodded to him when he was sure it was clear. They retraced their steps back to the staircase as quickly as he could manage under her weight.

“Are we still clear up there?” He asked Oardoli as soon as the comm was clear.

“We’re good.” She replied.

They had almost reached the entrance to the upper building when phaser fire lanced through the air next to them close enough to make his hair stand up.

Oardoli and Ilwea fired back, covering him. They dashed into the forest. Carrying Kee’s unconscious body slowed him down some, but not enough. They wound through the forest, switching back on hairpin turns down into the canyon that was thick enough with vegetation that they quickly disappeared.

Finally safe, Ren laid Kee down, propped up against the trunk of a tree. Ilwea continued on to retrieve the med kit they’d stashed nearby. Ren cupped her chin and lifted her face to his. “Kee.” He snapped his fingers in front of her face and called her name again. “Kee.”

Kee finally began to stir but before she was fully awake, she pushed him away and threw herself towards a bush to vomit. He gathered her stringy, blond hair to hold it back and waited for her to catch her breath.

Oardoli looked at them over her shoulder, “Ikenaohl.”

Ren nodded. Ikenaohl was a common drug used during interrogation and one of the side effects was nausea. He pulled a pack of water off of his belt and handed it to Kee who tipped her head up and dribbled it into her mouth, swished the water around and spat it out before handing the pack back to him.

She sat back on her knees, still doubled over and breathing hard. She wrapped her hands around her head, which was probably spinning as a result of the drug. He bent down to look into her pale green eyes and said softly, “Kee, we need to know what happened, did you tell them anything?”

Her voice was barely above a whisper, “No. I did what you said.”

Ren straightened up and smiled, “That’s my girl.”

Ilwea returned with the med kit and began treating Kee’s wounds while she slipped back into a drugged stupor.

Ren joined Oardoli on her vigil.

“Why aren’t they bombing this entire canyon right now?” She asked, mirroring the dread he was feeling.

“I don’t know.” He paused as he looked down at Kee, “But we’re going back in there as soon as possible.”

* * *

For the second time that day Kee awoke not knowing where she was, slowly grasping her surroundings. The last thing she remembered was repeating her anchor code and the Cardassians had believed it was real intel. Now she seemed to be alone in the forest. Pain throbbed through her head and she shaded her eyes against the piercing light from the sunset. A sudden hand on her shoulder made her jump before she realized it was Ilwea.

“Headache?” He asked.

She let out a long sigh, “Yeah.”

“It’ll pass.” He assured her.

She looked around with a twinge of panic, “Where are the others?”

“Ren wants to get back in there to see what’s going on. He and Oardoli went on ahead to scout it out.”

Kee slowly pushed herself up to a sitting position, wincing at the pain in her head. “When they’re ready to go back in, I want to go too.”

He cupped her chin and lifted her face to study her eyes for signs of head trauma. “You should stay here and rest. We’ll come back for you.”

“You said it was only a headache.” She insisted, pushing his hand away. “There are only four of us out here, Ren needs us all.” She pressed her hand against her head. Just talking seemed to increase the pain.

He handed her a water pack, “Here, this will help your body get rid of the toxin.”

She drank down as much as she could before she had to take a breath.

“You’ll still have to convince Ren to bring you.” Ilwea told her.

“Yeah, I know.” She took one more drink of water and handed it back to him then bent down to rest her head in her hands. The pain was intense, but nowhere near as bad as what she’d just gone through. She concentrated on blocking it out as she had in the past with other injuries. At least this was something she knew she could handle.

Ren’s voice came over the comm indicating that they were returning. She had a few more minutes to control the pain in her head before he and Oardoli appeared. He immediately knelt down in front of her. “How are you feeling?”

She made sure to look him in the eye, “Just a headache. I’ll be fine. I’m going back in there with you.” She informed him.

He held her gaze for a long time, considering whether she was fit enough. On the one hand, she’d just been through a terrible experience, but he knew how strongminded she could be. The determining factor would be the fact that he needed all of them if he was going to pull off whatever he had planned. He finally sighed, “Alright, Kee, I’m not prepared to argue with you.” With that he sat on the ground next to her and cleared away some of the tree litter in front of him down to a clear patch of dirt.

While he was doing so, Kee combed her fingers through her hair and twisted it into a bun. Without a word, Oardoli handed her a couple of hairpins. “Thanks.” She told her as she secured the knot of hair onto the top of her head. 

Using a stick, Ren drew a rectangle in the middle with multiple offshoots and a jagged line off to one side to represent the facility and the canyon ridge. “The way we went in before has two guards posted now but there’s a back entrance here.” He poked his stick at the back of the building. “Problem is that there are five guards back there hidden out of sight.”

“A trap.” Ilwea guessed.

Ren nodded, “There are six mobile patrols out there now, plus a few, I’m not sure how many, farther out searching the forest.” He drew six rough, overlapping circles to indicate the patrolled areas. “But because of the terrain it’s difficult for them to stay in visual contact with each other.” Next, he drew a hexagonal perimeter around the patrols. “So, they’ve set trip sensors out here.”

Trip sensors would make it difficult. Anything more than a falling leaf crossing the sensor path would be detected. And a grid could extend as much as ten meters above and below the emitter mounts.

“Whatever they have in there, they’re determined to keep it secret.” Oardoli added.

“How do we get past it?” Ilwea asked.

“One of us needs to climb up into the canopy and cross in the branches at least ten meters up.” Ren said, gesturing to the trees above them. “Then drop down and disable the sensor hub here,” he made a small circle just inside the perimeter.

“I’ll do it.” Kee volunteered. “I’m smaller and lighter. Any of you would sound like a _tokk_ bat up there.”

“When you see the patrol pass this point, you’ll have about three minutes to climb down and disable the hub.” Ren told her. “Just pry off the casing and…”

“I know how to do it.” She interrupted him.

“Okay. After the trip sensors are bypassed the rest of us can slip in between the patrols. The rear entrance is still our best bet, but we’ll need to take out the guards there silently.”

Which meant no phasers and no lengthy hand-to-hand combat. A chokehold or a knife to the throat should work, but the knife would be faster, Kee thought coldly. 

“Once we’re in, we’ll see what we’ve got to work with.” He concluded. “Any questions?” When no one spoke up he gave Kee his hand phaser and said, “Let’s move.”

Kee walked with the others to a place far enough outside the perimeter that the patrols wouldn’t spot them. She selected a tree that split into two just above her eyelevel. Ren gave her a boost and she pulled up and wedged herself between the two trunks.

With one foot under her and the other against the opposite trunk, she inched herself upward. Her heart pounded at the height and she tried to ignore the increasing distance between her and the ground. As she crept higher the trunks grew more flexible and swayed in the night breeze causing some residual queasiness from earlier to come back.

When she had reached the lowest branches, she stopped for a moment to calm her breathing and steady her shaking hands. She closed her eyes and took a few deep, calming breaths. After opening them, she began to assess which branches would be most likely to bear her weight.

She leaned forward to grasp the most stable branches and began pulling herself higher, carefully choosing handholds and footholds. Every few steps she looked down to estimate her height. When she believed she had reached ten meters she climbed just a bit higher still. Then, locating a pair of branches that reached across to the next tree, she carefully worked her way across and into it.

She crossed two more trees this way, always cautious not to rustle the branches. If the Cardassians spotted her up there, she’d make easy target practice. Finally, she arrived at the section that would take her across the perimeter. She checked her height again to be sure she was well over the ten-meter mark. A patrol crossed below her and just inside. She took a breath and kept going, stepping across the invisible lattice of sensors and to the other tree.

From high up in the tree she watched the patrol move away from her and began climbing down as fast as her shaking hands would allow. The lowest branch was still three meters off of the ground. She lowered herself down so that she dangled from it, the pain in her shoulders reminding her of the events of that day. She pushed the thought away and dropped to the ground into a crouch.

Coming down out of the tree had cost her her three minutes and she heard the patrol coming back. She pressed herself flat against the wide tree trunk and forced herself to breathe slowly and quietly, willing her heart to slow down while silently placing her hand on the phaser in her belt.

She waited and listened to the approaching Cardassian, eyeing the hub that was only a few steps away. She carried a device that masked her bio signs, she always did, but a direct tricorder scan could penetrate the scattering field. As he passed behind her, she held her breath and didn’t dare move even after he was walking away from her.

Once she could no longer hear him, she listened for the other one that would be patrolling this section, but heard nothing. She quickly darted to the sensor hub, skidding in the dirt on her knees, then flipped open her utility knife and pried off the casing. Again using her knife, she pulled two opticables out of their ports and cross connected them. The hub continued to function but no alert would be sent when the sensors were tripped.

Finally, she waved over her companions who had been following her progress. Together they made their way through the underbrush, stopping to wait for the second patrol to pass by. When they neared the rear entrance they split up, Ren silently assigning each of them to one of four hidden guards. Whoever took care of their assignment first would take the fifth.

Kee slowly approached the location of one of the guards, stepping carefully to avoid making a sound. Only when she was within two meters did she finally see him. She crept up behind him, her knife ready.

He suddenly sat up straight. She could see that he had spotted Ilwea, he raised his comm to his mouth. Before he could speak into it, she leapt on him and dug her knife deep into his throat, making sure to sever his trachea first. After a few desperate attempts to fight back he went limp and she lowered his heavy body to the ground, lifting the phaser rifle off of his shoulder.

After pulling a tangle of vines over the body to conceal it, Kee continued on toward where Ren said the rear entrance would be and found him already there, crouched next to a Cardassian body. “Overachiever.” She accused him in a whisper.

Ilwea and Oardoli arrived before he could respond. The entrance wasn’t much more than an old emergency exit with forest vines almost completely obscuring it, but as they shifted the vines out of the way they could see a modern locking mechanism attached to the door. “I’ll take care of this.” Oardoli said as she crouched down to examine the device and reached into her pocket to retrieve her tools.

Ren, Kee and Ilwea crouched there with their phasers ready and their backs to the door while she worked. After a few minutes, they heard a click and she whispered, “We’re in.”

Ren led the way with Kee by his side and Oardoli and Ilwea followed, guarding their rear. They proceeded down a long, dimly lit hallway that sloped downward. At the end of the hallway was another old door, but this one wasn’t locked.

Inside was the same rough concrete walls, narrow hallways and conduit-lined ceilings she’d seen before. They slipped into the first room to find that it was empty except for a console. Ren sat down and began attempting to log in using several codes they had acquired. The first two failed. A third failed attempt would set off the alarms. He took a visible breath and tapped in one more code. Finally, the display came to life. He called up a file directory, muttering to himself, “Now, let’s see what you’re up to here.”

Kee peered over his shoulder and watched the Cardassian characters scroll by, most of what she saw didn’t seem to have any meaning without context. Finally, she saw one that might give them the information they were looking for, “There, ‘progress reports’.” Ren scrolled back to the directory and opened it, then called up the most recent entry. It started out with typical Cardassian long-winded praise for the individual they were reporting to followed by obvious exaggeration of the project’s accomplishments.

Finally, almost half way down in the document the author finally got to the point. Kee read through a few paragraphs, picking out keywords, “Acetylcholine… neural transmitter… test subjects… endogenous chemical _extraction_!” That last word formed a knot in her stomach, “What _is_ this?” She moved aside for Ilwea to take a look.

His brow furrowed deeper with each paragraph he read. “Prophets, Ren! They’re extracting neural transmitters from Bajoran test subjects in order to build bio-neural circuitry.”

“Are the test subjects here somewhere?” He asked, immediately preparing for a rescue.

Ilwea shook his head. “I can’t tell from this file.” Ren moved out of the seat to give him control of the console and he began opening up other files, searching for the answer while the others looked on in horrified silence.

Without knowing all of the facts yet, Kee’s mind conjured up the most disturbing possibilities: live, conscious Bajorans, restrained and hooked up to machinery that was slowly extracting chemicals from their brains. And who were they? Convicted criminals? Captured Resistance members? Laborers who could no longer work? She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, anxious to stop this gruesome experimentation. She looked up at Ren, normally so controlled, he looked tense and ready to leap into action.

Finally, Ilwea said, “Here it is.” He showed them a schematic he’d found. “This is where we are.” He said, pointing to a small room at the end of a long hallway. Then he traced another hallway with small rooms on either side, some appeared empty and some indicated equipment of various shapes and sizes. “This is where Kee was earlier.” He pointed to one of the rooms near their current position.

Kee hid her gut reaction as best she could, but it still sent a chill down her spine. Ilwea traced the hallway farther down where it opened into a larger room with what could indicate bio beds. The knot in her stomach wrenched tighter.

“Do we have access to internal sensors?” Ren asked, leaning over him.

Kee leaned in, too. “I don’t think there _are_ internal sensors.” She tapped a few controls to call up a list of interface operations. “See there? The receiver module is missing.”

“They’re using an old building, maybe they never bothered to install a full grid.” Oardoli suggested over her shoulder.

Ren pointed to several dots along the hallway in the schematic, “These might be portable sensor units.” He looked at Oardoli, “Can you tap into them?”

She switched places with Kee and began digging into the system’s source code.

“We need to get to those people.” Ren told the other two. “Figure out what we can do for them, if anything and either wipe the memory core or blow the whole place.” Ren wasn’t one to plan too far ahead, taking advantage of each situation as it came. She didn’t expect much more of a plan out of him than what he’d just given. _Get to the test subjects._ That was their first goal, they’d figure out the rest from there.

Suddenly an alarm started blaring and the console Oardoli was working on went blank. “ _Kloss!_ ” She shouted, “I tripped an alarm. We’d better get out of here.”

“You three, see if you can get to that lab. I’ll shut down communications so they can’t call for help.” Ren ordered. They took positions on either side of the door and raised their weapons as Ren pressed the key to open the door. Phaser blasts cut through empty air. Kee and Oardoli peeked around the edge and fired back while Ilwea and Ren ducked through the doorway then laid down cover fire for them to do the same.

As the two groups exchanged fire, Ren split off in another direction to find and disable the comm. The rest of them worked their way backward toward the lab they’d seen on the schematic. Kee and Oardoli fired at the advancing Cardassians, taking turns covering and retreating, and Ilwea watched for any coming up behind them.

They stopped when they reached a section of hallway with no cover. “Now what?” Kee asked.

“Now,” Oardoli said, pulling a power cell out of her belt, “we improvise.” While Kee held the Cardassians back, Oardoli pulled out her knife and pried off the power cell’s casing. Then she dug the knife inside and finally popped out the safety mechanism. “Ready?” She asked the other two.

When they nodded, she threw the modified power cell down the corridor toward the Cardassians. When it hit the floor, electricity began arcing between it and anything conductive around it, including the Cardassians’ phasers. The three Bajorans didn’t wait to see the result, they ran at a full sprint to the room at the end of the corridor, but it was locked.

With Oardoli and Ilwea ready to provide cover fire, Kee pulled the cover off of the door’s keypad and reached inside. Her hands were just small enough to fit deep inside the mechanism. She felt around for a row of three isoliniar rods. When she found them, she pulled out the one on the right with her finger tips, moved it to her palm, pulled out the middle one and placed it in the slot on the right. Then straight up from there she found an empty port and reinserted the other rod. The door glided open and no phaser fire erupted from it, so they crept inside.

The room was large and dark. Round with a core of consoles in the center, and, most unsettling, a ring of biobeds around the perimeter with sheeted forms on each one. Before she could see more clearly, phaser fire passed over her head and hit the wall behind her. The three of them dove out of sight, Oardoli and Ilwea were pinned down near the door and Kee had taken cover behind the equipment in the center of the room. More phaser blasts came at them from deep in the darkness between the biobeds.

Kee moved on her knees into a position where she could see roughly where it was coming from. She flipped open the scope on her phaser rifle and activated the sensors, peering through it to locate the source. A single Cardassian scientist hid between the beds of his victims, clutching a hand phaser with shaking hands.

A twinge of compassion passed across Kee’s mind but she quickly banished it. This was a monster who had been participating in a horrifying experiment, he was worse than the soldiers outside who were trying to shoot them down. Worse, even, than the ones who’d been torturing her. He should be _scared_.

She breathed evenly as she tracked him in her scope, the last thing she wanted to do was hit one of his victims instead. He leaned out to shoot at them again and the moment she had a clean shot, she squeezed the trigger. A flash of light from her weapon and he dropped to the floor. Before coming out of hiding she scanned the rest of the room and found nothing.

While Oardoli watched the door, Ilwea stepped up to the console and Kee moved to the biobeds. There she found unconscious Bajorans with tubes and medical devices attached all over their bodies. Their eyes were open but unseeing, their facial features were dark and sunken, their skin ashen. Monitors above each bed showed readings that she couldn’t decipher. “Are they alive?” She asked softly as though she might wake them somehow.

Ilwea tapped uselessly at the console. “I can’t tell, it’s locked down.” He began searching through drawers and eventually found a tricorder. As he scanned the person closest to her, he shook his head. “Not really.” He said, then began scanning the others. “Their bodies are alive. But their acetylcholine has been almost entirely depleted.” He lowered the tricorder and turned back to her, “They’re completely brain dead.”

Kee wasn’t sure if she was saddened or relieved. If they had still been alive, would they have even been able to recover?

“Can we shut it down?” Oardoli asked with the same tightness in her voice that Kee felt.

Before Ilwea could answer, sounds from the other side of the door told them that the Cardassians were coming for them. Oardoli had secured it, but it was only a matter of time before they overrode the lock. She and Kee prepared for an onslaught while Ilwea inspected the machinery, trying to avoid the dead stare of the bodies.

Kee hefted her phaser rifle and checked the power cell. She was pleased to see that it was still over half full. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Oardoli do the same. They positioned themselves protectively between Ilwea and the door. Suddenly they could hear phaser fire on the other side. They looked at each other and said in unison, “Ren!”

Oardoli moved to release the door. It slid open but she stopped it about half way. Kee crouched low and leaned into the opening with Oardoli doing the same above her. Together with Ren, they created a crossfire with the Cardassians caught in the middle. She recognized one of them as the glinn who’d been her interrogator hours earlier. Kee made sure to kill him first, then shot one soldier after another until, finally, the corridor was clear.

Ren rushed toward them and squeezed through the door before Oardoli closed it. He stopped and looked around at the bodies in stunned silence. “Prophets.” He whispered. He ran his fingers through his hair, finally he found words, “Are they…?”

“No, they’re not alive.” Oardoli told him. “Ilwea’s trying to shut down the life-support.”

“I think I have it.” Ilwea said from his position under the head of one of the beds. Kee could see him pulling on something. When it finally gave way, the panel above the head of the bed winked off and the pieces of equipment attached to the body shut down. He stood up and scanned with the tricorder, then gently closed the eyes of the corpse.

“Show us what you did.” Ren said softly and Kee stepped quietly over to Ilwea’s side.

He bent down and pointed out a loose opticable. “Just pull that and it’ll shut down.”

Kee nodded and moved to another biobed to do the same as he showed Ren and Oardoli the same thing. She bent down, took hold of the cable and pulled. Just like before, as soon as it disengaged, the biobed shut down. She copied Ilwea’s action to close the eyes and made a note to herself to say a prayer to the Prophets for them each later.

The four moved through the room in complete silence, shutting down each of the biobeds. When it was all done, they stood together for a moment longer. Finally, Ren spoke, “We need to destroy this place so they don’t start it up again. Oardoli, do you still have those charges we brought?”

“Yeah.” She said as though he’d just woken her up from some private reverie, then slipped her pack off of her shoulders and dug around in it.

He began looking around for where to place the charges, “I want this entire room incinerated.” He pointed to the console in the center, “Put one there.” Then he pointed out other places around the perimeter, “there, there and there.”

Ilwea and Kee each took one of the charges from Oardoli and the three quickly carried out his orders. After they were done, he led them out into the corridor and back where they had entered. He took one last charge from Oardoli, attached it to the wall and they continued out with their weapons raised.

Once back outside, they searched the surrounding forest and found it empty. Finally, they moved outside of the blast area and took cover down in the canyon. Ren held out his hand for the detonator and Oardoli tossed it to him. “Those lives in there may have been lost in vain, but we’ll keep others from falling victim to the same fate.” He said, oddly contemplative.

When the others had nodded their agreement, he pressed the switch. Instantly they felt the ground heave and a split second later heard the explosion in the distance. After the debris had settled, they climbed back up where they could see the remains of the building. There was nothing but burning rubble with a wide circle around it where the trees and underbrush had been blown back. They watched it smolder for a moment before retreating into the woods. A skimmer would arrive shortly to investigate and they had to be gone long before then.


	4. Lost

_Bajor, 9366 (2364, Earth calendar)_

Rain poured down through the trees in big droplets but Kee barely felt it. She stopped at an old, mossy tree stump when her legs finally gave out. Unable to take another step, she knelt there alone in the mud, tears mixing with the rain that streamed down her face.

Dawn gently glowed in the distance. She’d spent the entire night fighting off a sudden attack. The Cardassians had been on top of them so fast, she couldn’t even be sure what had happened in the chaos or how many of her comrades had survived. She’d fought as hard as she could, but the waves of soldiers just kept coming. Somehow the Cardassians had known exactly how to find them.

Oardoli, she knew, was dead, as well as Walo. She’d seen Tulkish badly wounded, then a Cardassian stood over him and fired point-blank into his chest. Others had been pinned down behind inadequate cover where she couldn’t get to them and she wasn’t sure if they made it out. She hadn’t seen anyone else since Ren had given the order to retreat. It was entirely possible that she was alone out here.

Kee hesitated, unsure if she wanted to go to the rendezvous location at all. A knot sat in the pit of her stomach, what if she got there and there was no one else? Of those she knew were dead it was bad enough, but she couldn’t bear the thought of losing Ren or Joial.

She glanced at her phaser. She’d discharged almost the entire power cell in the futile attempt to defend her cell. Her hands were bruised and cut from fighting Cardassians hand-to-hand. Her ankle ached where she’d twisted it tumbling down an embankment. Fighting against her fear and pain, she pushed herself up off of the ground and continued toward the rendezvous.

It was fully light by the time she reached her destination. As she approached, she didn’t hear any voices to indicate that others had arrived. She urged herself forward, it was still early, maybe others hadn’t arrived yet. Finally, she pushed through the last of the brush and saw one figure, kneeling on the ground with his head bowed down.

Joial looked up when he saw her and relief flooded through her. She rushed to her uncle and threw herself into his arms. He wrapped her in a tight embrace and they knelt there together for long moments. A bubble of both worry and relief pressed hard against her chest, but she was too ragged to really feel it.

When she felt she had control over her emotions, she pulled back and looked at him. He looked as haggard as she must have. His shoulder was bloodied from a phaser burn. “Didn’t anyone tell you you’re supposed to duck?” She chided him.

He managed a small smile, “Speak for yourself,” He said touching a crusted wound on her forehead, “you’ve got something going on up here.”

She reached up to verify that it had stopped bleeding, “I don’t have a med kit.”

“Neither do I.”

She rested her dirty, bloody hands in her lap and gazed at them for a few seconds. “Any idea if anybody else made it?”

He shook his head. “I saw Jeeta, Ikis, Hep and Eedak go down. I don’t know about anyone else.”

She nodded, Ikis and Hep were two of the others who had joined the Resistance at the same time she did. “Oardoli, Walo and Tulkish, too.”

He sighed, “That leaves nine out there that we don’t know about, including Ren.”

She stood up, “I should be out there trying to find them.”

He stood and held her by the shoulders, “Ren’s orders were clear. We meet here.”

“His orders don’t mean anything if he’s dead.” Panic seeped into her gut at the thought. “Any one of them could be out there right now, dying! Or being hunted down!”

“We can’t do anything about that. The Cardassians will be watching the area for anyone returning for survivors. Neither of us is in any condition to put up enough of a fight.”

She angrily pushed his hands off of her shoulders. She wanted desperately to turn around and go find the others but she couldn’t deny that he was right. If she encountered even one Cardassian soldier in her current condition, she’d have no chance. Finally, the frustration and anger and pain came flooding out. She dropped her head against his chest, sobbing and soon heard that he was weeping too.

* * *

Kee awoke to Joial’s hand gently shaking her shoulder. He’d suggested that she lay down and rest for a few minutes while he kept watch. She hadn’t expected to fall asleep but was so exhausted that she’d quickly dropped off. When she peered up at him, she saw that he had pulled his phaser and was watching for something through the brush. She bolted upright and took out her phaser, pointing it toward the noise.

Suddenly Ilwea and Naren burst through into the clearing together. Kee and her uncle immediately lowered their phasers and she breathed a relieved sign. Ilwea looked at the two of them and quickly dropped to his knees. “I have a med kit.” He pulled out a dermal regenerator and began tending to Joial’s shoulder first.

Naren sat down cross-legged next to them and buried his face in his hands. Kee waited and eventually he recited three more names of dead colleagues, “Cidu, Yel and Batirni.” Each one felt like a knife in her heart.

“That leaves Fim, Sonun, Unyush and Ren.” She said, and the more time passed, the less likely any of them would have made it.

Ilwea finished treating Joial’s injuries and moved to Kee. His clothes were covered with blood, a lot of it. Chances were that he’d tried saving somebody but couldn’t and the haunted look in his eyes confirmed it. Which one had it been? Who had bled out in his arms? She pushed the image away.

While Ilwea worked, Naren theorized about what had happened: a new sensor method, a resistance fighter broken during interrogation, a collaborator… There was no way to tell just yet.

When Ilwea finished they sat together in a semicircle. At some point they’d have to decide what to do next if Ren never showed up. But for now, they sat together in silence, the heartache and fear hanging around them. The feeling of dread sat heavy in her stomach as though it were a physical thing.

She knew they should recite the prayer for the dead, to ask the Prophets to protect their friends in death, but she couldn’t bring herself to say or even think the words. She wondered if this would be the rest of her life. Friendships and loss, love and pain, over and over and over. The thought made her feel numb.

Finally, she raised her eyes to look at the others again. They hadn’t eaten since the previous night and by late afternoon that fact was pressing itself more urgently. None of them had any rations on them, but it was late-fall so there might be something growing wild that they could eat. Kee stood up and volunteered, “I’ll go find something.” But before she could leave, they heard noise in the forest.

Ren slipped into the clearing to be greeted by four phasers leveled at his chest, but they immediately dropped them. Of course, he would be the last one here. Like Ilwea, his clothes were soaked with blood, there was a cut on the back of his neck and a phaser burn on his hip.

He acknowledged the four of them, keeping a tally in his head, no doubt. He set down his pack and wrapped one arm around Kee’s shoulder, pulling her close for a half-embrace. She leaned her head against him but said nothing. No words could express her feelings or, it seemed, his. After a moment he bent down and dug in his pack. “I have rations.” Then handed out four packages.

Ilwea tucked his ration in his pocket and began healing Ren’s wounds with the dermal regenerator that looked to be nearly out of power.

Ren finally spoke again, “I’ve confirmed thirteen fatalities, we’re all that’s left.” That’s what he’d been doing out there all day, covering the battlefield back and forth to check for his people.

Five survivors out of eighteen, they’d been cut down to a quarter of their number. Kee suddenly didn’t feel like eating, but she forced herself to anyway. She flexed the unopened ration packet to break up the contents and looked around at the dirty, weary faces knowing that somehow they would heal and rebuild to fight again.

* * *

Since Kee had already caught a little bit of sleep, she leaned against a wide tree and kept watch while the others slept. Ren had insisted that he wouldn’t sleep but soon the fatigue and emotional drain had taken their toll. He’d rested his head on her shoulder and was soon asleep. He’d decided they would rest here until morning, then go to one of their supply caches. Naren had pointed out that if they’d been compromised, none of their hideouts might be safe. But they didn’t have much choice. They needed weapons and supplies if they were even going to survive, much less continue to wage war on the Cardassians.

The forest was quiet except for the sounds of the evening birds calling to each other. Sweet, peaceful sounds, a stark contrast to last night’s horror. Flashes of those events kept coming up in her memory. Her heart ached like it had been ripped apart. Thirteen of her closest friends and comrades gone. People who had been like family to her for almost three years.

She fingered her hair that Oardoli had braded only a day ago and watched the others sleep. Ilwea, who had so often tended to her injuries with such compassion. Naren, who she’d spent many, many hours with constructing all sorts of explosive devices. Joial, who’d done his best to fill the emptiness left behind in their home when her father had died. Now in the resistance together, their relationship had grown beyond uncle/niece and into something far deeper than family.

Then there was Ren. Her mentor, her teacher, her hero.

She listened to his soft breathing as he slept there against her shoulder and briefly rested her head on his, but quickly straightened back up, she couldn’t afford to fall asleep while keeping watch. She wondered at the burden he must have carried, and the pain that far exceeded hers. She knew he would not waver, he would lead them through this, he would make them strong again so that they could continue defending Bajor. For his sake, she would remain strong, keep going. She would do and be whatever he needed her to. He deserved that much from her. As the last of the light from the setting sun disappeared, overwhelming love for these four people welled up inside of her.

* * *

Ren and Kee stopped to warm their hands at a metal shipping container that had been turned into a bonfire. She looked around at the primitive encampment that had formed under the overpass of a Cardassian high-capacity roadway. Tents and shelters made of scavenged material sat randomly around the gravelly area. Many of these people had been deemed too old or disabled to serve the Cardassian’s purposes and had been left to fend for themselves. Others were perfectly fit, but had managed to remain unnoticed by staying here.

“I haven’t seen you around here before.” A man standing on the other side of the fire said with suspicion.

“We’re looking for Hizag.” Ren said, “Any idea where I could find him?”

The man nodded to the other end of the settlement.

“Thanks.” Ren said and turned away.

Kee followed, keeping step at his side. What was left of their cell had done their best to recover over the last few months, but with only the five of them they didn’t have the resources necessary to carry out any significant actions against the Cardassians. They needed to team up with other cells while they rebuilt their group.

Theirs wasn’t the only cell hit, either. Over the course of two weeks the Cardassians had wiped out or seriously reduced all of the Resistance cells in the area. They learned that it had been the result of a massive intelligence coordination that the Cardassians had been working on for months. And it worked. The Resistance activity in Joralla had almost completely halted.

Hizag was the man who could put them in contact with the other cells.

As they entered the shadow of the overpass a woman hurried up to them. She looked like she was in her early twenties, definitely part of the latter category that lived here. There was something odd about her earring. It was only a clasp and a cuff linked by two chains with no ornamentation, suggesting that either she had disowned her family or they had disowned her. Ren stopped to let her speak.

“My name is Cadda. I want to join you.” She said, looking Ren directly in the eye.

Ren shook his head and kept walking, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Cadda hurried around in front of them so they had to stop. “I can tell from a kellipate away that you’re Resistance. So am I, or, I was. I want to join you.” When Ren didn’t consent or refuse, she continued, “I was a member of Eru’s cell.”

“Eru was wiped out.” He said flatly.

“Yes!” She urged, “I survived and was taken prisoner. I spent weeks in an interrogation center.” Her voice wavered, “I escaped and came here. I have nowhere to go, I want to be back in the fight!”

Ren regarded her for a long moment. “We’ll be back through here shortly.”

“I’ll be here.” She promised.

As they walked away, Kee protested, “You’re going to let her join us? Just like that? We don’t know anything about her.”

“If she was a member of Eru’s cell, we can trust her.”

“She could be lying!” She argued.

“If we can’t trust each other, we’ve already lost.”

She knew he didn’t believe that. It had likely been a group of collaborators who had enabled the massacres in the first place. The Cardassians held control over their planet through fear and intimidation and the truth was that they already couldn’t trust other Bajorans.

Before she could argue further, they reached a shelter that was set apart from the others. A woman sat outside, leisurely knitting but a bulge under her coat implied that she wasn’t just some refugee. “We’re looking for Hizag.” Ren told her.

The woman stood without saying a word and motioned for them to proceed into the shelter. Inside they found an elderly man old enough to have been alive before the occupation seated at a crate that served as a desk. His right arm and both of his legs were missing and he looked impossibly thin, but somehow still conveyed a sense of dignity that Kee immediately respected without really knowing why.

Ren froze as the woman stepped inside and pointed her phaser at the back of his head. “Hands up.” She said, and they both obeyed.

“Don’t worry,” Hizag said, “She’s just very protective.” He held out a slip of paper to Ren who took it. “That’s the information you asked for. The name you’re looking for is Prortu.”

“Thank you.” Ren said, but didn’t turn to leave yet.

“Was there something else?”

“There’s a woman out there,” he gestured out the door, “Says her name is Cadda…”

“A yes, Cadda.” Hizag said with recognition. “What about her?”

“She said she was a member of the Eru cell.”

Hizag waived his one hand in the air, “I don’t know anything about that. But I’ll tell you one thing.” He paused with a pained expression on his lined face, “Around here, there’s no law. The Cardassians mostly stay out of our business, but unfortunately Bajorans commit crimes against other Bajorans. And the people here are some of the most vulnerable.”

He paused, the creases in his forehead showing the weight of the people he felt responsible for. “Those crimes include those of the sexual nature. But since Cadda showed up here, I haven’t heard one report of sexual assault. Not one. They say she knocked one of them out cold and threatened the others. They’re all terrified to lay a finger on any of the women here.” He shook his head, “That’s all I can say about her.”

“Thank you, again.” Ren said earnestly, then turned to leave. Once he and Kee were out of the shelter the woman with the phaser sat back down and resumed her knitting.

* * *

Kee and Cadda sat across from each other on either side of a small fire. They’d nestled themselves in an alcove formed by a huge crack where a piece of rock had broken away from the rest of the hillside. The fire didn’t give off much heat, but they didn’t want to risk anything larger that could give away their position.

The plan had originally been for Ren and Kee to meet up with Prortu together, but they didn’t know Cadda well enough yet to take her with them and potentially expose another cell, so Kee had stayed behind with her while Ren went alone.

Kee studied her as she picked bits of either dirt or dried blood off of the hilt of her knife. It was definitely a Cardassian knife and if that was blood on it, it was Cardassian blood. With a closer look at her earring, Kee could see that the loops where the ornamentation had once been attached had sharp edges as though they’d been ripped apart. Whatever had happened, it had been done in anger.

“You don’t trust me, do you?” Cadda finally asked.

Kee considered her response, “I don’t trust you.” She confirmed. “But I don’t mistrust you either.”

Cadda nodded, “I can accept that.”

“How did you escape from an interrogation center _alone_ , by the way?” Kee probed.

“I was in the interrogation center until they felt that any information I might have was no longer relevant.” She paused, staring at the knife in her hands. “At that point they took me to the gul’s private office.” Kee was afraid she knew where this story was going. “Over the next few months he raped me every day. The same monster who had tortured me.

“Once he was convinced that I had become sufficiently _submissive_ he began to let his guard down. One day I was able to grab his knife,” she held up the knife, “and killed him, then I cut off his thumb and used it to access computer systems and door locks all over the facility.”

Kee watched her through the firelight. This woman had been through the same massacre she had but also torture and rape on top of that and had come out the other side willing, even eager to continue the fight. That must be why she had taken action against the rapists in the encampment. Her earlier misgivings melted away and Kee immediately admired her. Unfortunately, that meant she’d have to admit to Ren that he’d been right about Cadda and she’d been… less right.

At Kee’s silence Cadda changed the subject, “So, how’d you end up in the resistance?”

Most of the rebels she had fought beside had already known her story, she wasn’t even sure if she’d ever been asked before. “I was living in a refugee camp and was arrested for vandalism.”  
Cadda’s eyebrows shot up.

“I didn’t do it. But that doesn’t matter anyway, does it?” Kee continued without expecting an answer, “They just grabbed the first four kids they could get their hands on. We were processed, tried and scheduled to be executed. My uncle had been an informant for Ren’s cell for some time and he contacted them and asked them to help us.”

“And they let you join, just like that?”

Kee felt the corner of her mouth creep up, “It took a bit of convincing. What about you?”

“When I was sixteen, I started sneaking out of my parents’ house at night to go on raids with Eru.” She shook her head, “Staying up all night, I could barely function during the day. I couldn’t have kept it up for long. I don’t know what I thought was going to happen. My parents got suspicious and caught me sneaking back in one morning. They forbade me to go back to Eru, but I went anyway. They told me if I left don’t bother coming back. So, I didn’t.”

Kee wasn’t sure what was worse, losing a parent or being disowned by them. She was about to say so when Ren’s face broke into the firelight. “Look what I found.” He smiled and tossed a piece of kava fruit to each of them.

“Where’d you find this?” Kee asked with surprise.

He sat down to break his open, “You know that abandoned orchard just outside the city? One of the trees is a late-producer, there were still a few pieces of fruit on it.”

Ren’s good mood had to be about more than some fruit, the meeting with Prortu must have gone well. She smiled and broke open her piece, feeling hopeful for the first time in months.


	5. The Cabin

_Bajor, 9367 (2365, Earth calendar)_

“You can’t be serious!” Kee said to Traie as they hiked through the woods.

“I swear before the Prophets.” He said in his serious tone, which wasn’t too much different than his joking tone.

She and Traie had been sent to the eastern side of Joralla near the border to Ilvia to check on Cardassian activity there as well as sabotage a few of the sensor towers on their way through. In the week that they’d been zigzagging through the woods they had seen a few patrols, but nothing unusual.

“How would you even pull that off? Just walk up and snatch the money pouch?”

“Well…” He said in an elongated way, “it wasn’t actually on him. It was in a satchel that he had set down while he looked at a map. So, I reached in while his back was turned and grabbed it.”

“You little thief.” She snickered.

He shrugged. “How was I supposed to know it was the Prefect’s third cousin? He should have known better than to turn his back on his belongings in that part of Jolral city anyway.”

“So, what’d you do with the money?” She asked as they crested a hill and started back down.

“Oh, well, there was an older couple that lived on our street. They needed the money more than I did anyway.” He brushed it off. The second sentence couldn’t have been very true, he told her he’d been living on the street on his own at the time, it seemed like he would have needed the money as much as anyone else. Yet his gentle, giving nature had driven him to give away what he had every right to keep.

She stopped and turned to him, overwhelmed by affection for him and planted her lips on his. His mouth was cold on the surface, but warm underneath and he happily returned the gesture. Their arms found their way to each other’s bodies around the packs and weapons they carried.

The night they met, the first time Ren’s and Prortu’s cells had come together, they had stayed up talking and laughing until sunrise. Much to the annoyance of the others. Afterward she had felt giddy and lightheaded for weeks.

Eventually that feeling faded and a deeper connection remained, she knew that what she felt was real and she would never be complete without him. And that was a dangerous thing. If they were ever captured together, she knew without a doubt that she’d give anything to keep him safe. Anything. That terrified her more than anything else ever had.

After catching onto the budding romance, the two leaders had tried to keep them apart on missions, but they made such a natural team that they eventually gave in and started sending them out together.

The pair finally separated with a soft sound and continued their forest trek.

He pointed to the cleft between two of the lower mountains in the distance. “Did you know, that used to be called the Schayazyon Pass,” Trey said matte-of-factly as they trudged along the path. Kee glanced over at him askance.

“I have never heard of that.” She said, immediately wondering if this was one of his jokes.

“Oh, yeah, it’s been well documented. Centuries ago, there was a long-fought battle between some native settlers and the Schayazyon. Ever since, it was named after them.”

“And who were the Schayazyon?” She said dubiously.

Trey held up his hands about a foot apart. “Not who; what. They were about this big with furry bodies and big buck teeth. And ears as big as yours.”

Kee reached out to clobber him as he burst out laughing.

“Stop it. We’re supposed to be serious.” She said, giggling despite herself.

“Speak for yourself.” He said with the corner of his lip pulled up into what she was sure was a permanent smirk.

She’d have to do her best to avoid encouraging him, at least until they were settled for the night. Though, for all of his goofing around, when it came right down to it, she could count on him to be focused and serious when it mattered.

At the crest of the next hill, they stopped for a moment to catch their breath.

“We should stop for the night soon.” He suggested and took a swig from his water pack before offering it to her.

“There’s a small cabin not far from here. I think we can make it there before dark.” She took a drink, looking out over the green-coated forest around them. The sun was definitely on its way down, but she was sure they had enough time to get to the cabin before dark. In fact, it should be just beyond the next hill.

Most of the time they followed old, well-traveled animal paths. Besides making it easier to move through the overgrown brush, their tracks wouldn’t be as easy to trace if they were to be followed. However, the animals that originally made the tracks didn’t always do so in a logical fashion. Sometimes the trails went around the hills and other obstacles and other times they went right over them.

The cabin came into view as they skirted the hill. Well, not really a “cabin” as much as a one-room shack covered in thick moss and debris from the trees above, she corrected herself. But it would give them shelter if it rained during the night.

“I’ll take the interior, you check the perimeter.” She suggested. Although he was two years older than her, she had been with the resistance longer so she had seniority on missions. He pulled out a scanner and began a circuit of the area, dropping proximity sensors along the way. She raised her phaser toward the cabin as she approached it, watching for any movement inside.

The door creaked quietly as she pushed it open, but it was empty. The tattered rags somebody in the past had used to cover the windows allowed some light from the setting sun to shine inside, washing the empty interior with golden light. Kee scanned for sensors or traps and found none. The Cardassians either hadn’t found the place yet, or they didn’t think it was worth their time.

A new line of graffiti had been added since the last time she was here: Resistance is built on hope. She smiled at that, a bit naïve, but moving in a way. She continued, her boots made hollow sounds as she walked across to the far side of the room to pull open the trap door. She shined her flashlight down into the tiny crawlspace. Nothing there either.

Traie came inside and set up a control pad to monitor the sensors he had left around the area.

Kee allowed her pack and weapon to slip off of her shoulder and set them down on the floor, suddenly feeling lighter and watched him for a moment. He had a knack for sensor systems and she’d come to enjoy watching his fingers tap deftly across the controls.

She suddenly realized that this would be the first night they’d spent alone together. Each night so far on their journey had been spent in the home of their sympathizers in one village or another. In fact, this might be the most privacy they would have for a good, long time.

… and he was so appealing over there with his eyes and lips and such.

As soon as he stood up from calibrating the sensors, she virtually pounced on him, taking his lips onto hers and wrapping her arms around his neck.

He slipped his hands around her waist under the edge of her shirt and she yelped at the touch of his cold fingertips. “Sorry.” He laughed.

She gazed up into his deep brown eyes that seemed so bright and joyful. How he hadn’t been beaten down by the life they led, she could never understand. Her thumb scratched against the stubble along the edge of his sharp jaw and her hand slipped behind his neck to part channels in the short-cropped hair and pull him close.

Another taste of his mouth sent a thrill through her body. The reality of their world faded, their future seemed hopeful, if only in that moment. She loved him. She couldn’t explain why or how, but every cell in her body told her so. Her fingers dug into his back as though she could somehow make him a permanent part of her.

When he broke his lips from hers again, he whispered, “I love you.”

The words shattered the rest of the world around them, all she could perceive was the space between them. She thought she returned the sentiment. She was sure she said it back, even, but she couldn’t quite recall doing so.

For a moment, she remembered where they were and craned her neck toward the proximity sensor display. Still quiet outside.

Her hand dropped to his waist, but she hesitated, heart pounding, for only a moment before her mind and body were in agreement. The words they uttered were insufficient to express the way she felt and the feelings that burned inside her urged her onward.

His hands found their way to the fly of her pants, but fumbled with the clasps. With an urgency neither of them could resist, they tugged at each other’s clothes, stripping away the bare minimum necessary to accomplish their task.

* * *

“You cannot be serious.” Kee insisted as they sat on the floor facing each other. She picked another piece of Cardassian field ration out of the pouch and ate it.

“Really. She actually likes these.” He lifted up his own ration before taking another bite.

She shook her head, “Somehow I had the feeling Prortu was crazy.” She said in a hushed tone as though someone might overhear.

“I think one has to be a little bit crazy to lead a group of rebels on a crusade against the Cardassians.”

She stuck her finger at him, he had a point, Ren was a bit crazy too. “True.” She moved over to sit next to him with their backs against the wall.

They ate and talked and laughed as always. Somehow, she’d expected to feel different afterward, to be different, but nothing had changed. No regrets, no self-consciousness, nothing like that. Neither of them had been with anyone before but all she could think was how much she enjoyed being next to him.

The light from the sun faded and they sat in near darkness together, the only illumination in the room coming from the sensor control pad. Even in stretches of silence they were completely comfortable in each other’s company. In the morning they would retrieve their sensors outside and continue their mission. But for now, they had only each other.


	6. Distress Call

_Bajor: 9368 (2366, Earth calendar)_

“Move! Move!”

Traie could barely hear his cell leader’s orders over the noise of battle. The Cardassians had tracked them somehow and came in hard and fast. Their newest recruit, Lirk, had gone missing just the night before. Maybe it had something to do with it… but that wasn’t something to contemplate in the midst of a war zone. A fact that was punctuated by the phaser blast that sliced through the air just over his shoulder.

He turned and dropped to one knee with a single movement and searched for his target.

Azirn showed up a few meters away, kneeling in a similar position. There was a Cardassian back there somewhere.

The two of them had been playing a card game when the first Cardassians showed up. They’d had to run for cover with the rest of their cell, leaving their cards scattered behind them.

The noise of weapons fire and shouting died down for an eerie moment while all Traie could hear was his own pulse rushing through his ears and the ragged breathing in his dry throat.

A glimpse of gray armor and he aimed his weapon, but it was gone before he could shoot. Azirn suddenly opened fire in the same direction and the Cardassian moved to take cover, coming back into Traie’s sightline.

While Azirn kept up the heat, Traie lined up his shot and fired, catching the Cardassian in the chest with a phaser beam that lasted long enough to drill through his armor.

The quiet moment was over, the deafening noise of battle resumed and the young resistance fighters bolted again in the direction of their retreat with the others.

A fierce wave of phaser fire erupted around them, scorching the large trees and cutting down the smaller ones, lighting small fires in the underbrush. Traie ducked as best he could while still running, weaving between over and under the trees.

Azirn let out a strangled cry and Traie turned to see him tumble to the ground. He whirled around to double back, directly toward the lethal energy beams.

A sick feeling swelled in the pit of his stomach when he dropped to his knees at his friend’s side and saw the wound on his back that had burned away the flesh, exposing part of his ribcage which was charred and black. There was no way he’d survived, but he had to check anyway.

For a moment, the grief overwhelmed his awareness of the battle raging around him. Another loss. Another friend.

Reality snapped back when Prortu appeared from somewhere, grabbing the shoulder of his jacket in her fist and yanking him away.

“Go!” She had to shout almost directly in his ear for him to hear her at all.

He tore himself away from their fallen comrade and forced himself to keep going. He and Prortu somehow rejoined the others and he saw that Anem was working the comm unit in one hand while firing behind her at the enemy with the other. Calling for help, no doubt.

It seemed like the tiny group of rebels were almost in the clear when the Cardassians closed in in front of them. Anem was hit. He saw a glimpse of the comm unit as she went down indicating a message was sent, then she hit the ground like a limp doll and it rolled out of her hand.

They tried to escape to the side, but the Cardassians had them surrounded while the soldiers behind caught up. In a rush of rough handling, the rebels were disarmed and thrown to the ground with heavy boots pinning them down, each patted down and relieved of hidden weapons. From his prone position, Traie’s face was centimeters from Anem’s open but unseeing eyes. He had to look away.

Two of the Cardassians hauled Prortu to her feet and pinned her to a wide tree trunk while their superior stepped carefully between the prisoners. Once he was almost nose to nose with her, he grasped her jaw in his hand. “So, you’re the one who’s been giving us all this trouble.”

Prortu didn’t give him the satisfaction of a response, though her fists were clenched tight.

The officer jerked her face toward him to be sure he had her attention. “We know how to deal with troublemakers.” He said with a dangerous lilt to his voice.

When he finally let go of her, red marks lingered behind where his fingers had dug into her skin and he said to his men, “Take them back to base.”

* * *

Kee fingered through her pack, sliding into place new supplies that Gam and Alerra had brought back from the city, but her mind was far from the task. It had been weeks since she’d seen Traie, the longest time apart since they’d met. The cells worked separately most of the time, but at least they crossed paths frequently enough for the couple to steal away some private moments.

More often than was prudent, her attention was entirely preoccupied with thoughts of him. Knowing that any moment could be the last for either of them made every moment together that much more treasured, and made parting that much more painful. She was often overwhelmed with the irrational duel impulses to both shout out loud how much she loved him and break down weeping at the heartache of losing him some day.

Pulling her out of the depths of her thoughts, Joial nudged her arm with a stack of field rations. She took it from him and counted them. Seven. It wasn’t much, she’d have to budget them carefully. She wished she could say that living her entire life hungry had made her numb to the pain, but biology was a powerful thing that wouldn’t allow such a vital need to be ignored. No matter how doggedly their enemy pursued them, they would always be fighting a war on two fronts. One against the Cardassians and one against their own biological needs.

A series of chirps chittered out of the low-range comm unit Ren carried. The low murmur of routine conversation went silent while they listened for it. The comm unit chirped again, the same sequence, while he fished it out of his pocket and checked the screen.

“It’s Prortu’s emergency signal.” He said urgently. “Five kellipates north-east.”

Her mind immediately went to Traie. He could already be dead. But she tamped the thought down into a deep pit in her mind. She’d need to be able to think clearly, objectively in order to help them.

“Grab your gear, let’s go.” Ren ordered, but Kee had already slung her pack into place on her back.

* * *

“Sixteen.” Dall said.

“Twelve.” Was Kulz’ answer.

“Forty-seven.” Traie guessed.

“And the real answer is?” Toran asked as unofficial referee.

“Twenty-six. A Naussican has twenty-six individual armor plates on his or her face.” Catyo informed them.

The five of them plus Prortu had been stuffed into two small holding cells and left to stew for the moment. They’d found a slightly misaligned wall panel that Kulz was working to dislodge while the others kept the guard distracted with their chatter.

Even if they were able to get the panel off, there was little chance it would do them any good, but they had to do something. The signal had been sent to Ren, but, for any one of dozens of reasons, there was no way to know if they would come. They might have been out of range, or fighting off an assault of their own, or imprisoned already, or… he didn’t want to think of the next option to come to mind. The devastating attacks from a year earlier were still too fresh in their minds.

Better to keep themselves and the guard distracted.

“Measurement of cabrodine needed to ignite seven micrograms of infernite.” Dall posed the next question.

* * *

When they found the remains of the Prortu cell’s camp, Kee could see that something was very wrong. Supplies were left lying around, someone’s jacket was draped over a tree branch, even a few weapons lay on the ground. Worse, there were burn marks from phaser fire on the trees and in the dirt.

“Over here.” Cadda said, already following a path of destruction leading away from the campsite.

Not far down the trail was a body. Kee stopped cold. The body was face down, no way to tell who it was. She couldn’t bring herself to reach down to check.

Finally, Ren knelt down and rolled him over, revealing that it was Azirn, Traie’s close friend.

Kee slowly let out a shaking breath, hating herself for being relieved.

“Another one.” Alerra called out from some distance ahead. “It’s Anem.”

By the time they reached her, it was obvious that this had been the end of their fight. Multiple tracks converged at this location, suggesting that they’d been surrounded.

Gam and Cadda arrived, carrying Azrin’s body and laid it gently next to Anem, positioning them both in a peaceful pose with their eyes closed. With their colleagues in danger, there was no time to burry them. And even if they were able to rescue them and return quickly, it was certain that the wild animals would have been at them. It shouldn’t matter, after death the body was just a shell, but it somehow made their loss far, far worse.

Joial scanned the area with a Cardassian tricorder. “I’m picking up tritonium isotopes over there.” He indicated a direction away from them. Many members of the Resistance had an implant that could leave a trail of tritonium isotopes for others to follow. Kee absentmindedly reached up to gently touch the tiny bump where hers rested against her collarbone. Joail looked up from his tricorder, “It’s strong enough to have been left within the last hour.”

“Lead the way, Joial,” Ren said. “Cadda, Gam, you two flank him and keep an eye on the woods ahead. Kee and I will take up the rear. Everyone else, keep your eyes open.” She waited for the other six members of the cell to fall in line with the first three.

Ever since the incident a month ago, things had been strained between Ren and her. Hiking next to him wasn’t exactly something she was looking forward to, especially with the worry that already sat in her stomach like a stone.

As she began following the others, Ren stopped her by pressing the back of his hand against her shoulder. In a low voice meant only for her, he said “Don’t do anything stupid.”

Just as she was afraid of, the same incident that had come to her mind was on his, when she’d disobeyed orders a nearly got everybody killed.

They’d been informed of a labor camp small enough for them to hit on their own. The glinn in charge of the camp was well known for his cruelty.

When Ren’s cell had arrived to recon the camp they found a cluster of slave laborers forced to watch while a woman, with her hands bound to a post in the middle of the clearing, was whipped savagely. Kee learned later that the woman, a wife and mother, had refused to perform a sex act for one of the soldiers and they were making an example of her.

Ren hurriedly formulated a plan and Kee slipped into the crowd and took up her assigned position.

She was under orders not to make a move until the other members of the cell were in place. But Kee could see that the woman wasn’t going to survive much more. She had to do something.

Ignoring her orders, she pushed through the crowd and ran past the Cardassian with the whip and to the woman, covering her body with her own. A moment later the whip came down on her back, the sharp tip easily cutting through her clothes and into her flesh. The pain was sudden and intense. The woman cowered, bleeding in her arms while Kee waited for another blow.

Instead, weapons fire. Her colleagues had reacted to her impulsive and foolish action.

She forced herself to move despite the pain. She tipped her body to one side and kicked the Cardassian with the whip in the knee, forcing it to bend in the wrong direction. A moment later she was on her feet.

He tried to back up to strike her with the whip again but she grabbed it and wrapped it twice around her hand, pulling him back close to her.

He lashed out with his free hand, hitting her on the jaw. She turned to lessen the blow and pressed her foot against his injured knee, forcing him to the ground while she coiled the whip around his neck.

She pulled the phaser from his belt and used him as a shield while she picked off some of the other soldiers around the perimeter. He regained his balance and lurched backwards, throwing her off her feet. As she fell backward, she jerked the whip to the side, snapping his neck.

She landed on her back, dirt and pebbles embedding themselves in the fresh wound.

With the soldier no longer in the crossfire, multiple phaser blasts pounded the ground around Kee. She crouched in front of the woman, who’s wrists were still bound to the post. She fired back through the dust, praying that some of her shots would hit their targets.

She heard phaser fire beyond the dust cloud, then silence. When the dust settled the Cardassians were dead and the rebels had managed to survive. No thanks to Kee.

Without a dermal regenerator, Kee’s back had had to be stitched up to heal on its own, reminding her every day what she had done.

Ren had sharply rebuked her for disobeying orders and putting the rest of them at risk. He had never spoken so harshly to her before or since. She had no excuse, could only accept whatever scolding he could lay out on her.

His trust in her had been broken and there was no going back.

“I won’t.” She muttered, hoping that she had not permanently damaged his trust in her. They followed the rest of the group in silence, the weight in her stomach now felt ten times heavier.

* * *

They tracked the tritonium isotopes until well after nightfall. Cautiously they approached a group of small structures. They had begun seeing these from time to time. A unit with barracks, one with a couple of holding cells and a glinn’s office plus a few multi-use structures surrounded by a fence and automated phaser turrets. They were mobile units the Cardassians could tear down, move then set back up in a day. It gave them a secure base camp but provided almost as much mobility as the rebels had.

“I’d love to get us one of those.” Naren said, though Ren had repeatedly told them that it would be more trouble than its worth.

“I can’t tell for sure if they’re in there, not with passive scans, at least. But I’m reading six heat signatures higher than the spoon heads would give off at this time of night.” Joial said. “It could be them.”

“It might be a trap.” Naren suggested.

“Everything might always be a trap.” Ren reminded them idly.

“Whether or not those are our people, a full assault would be too risky. They might start executing the prisoners at the first sign of trouble. We need to get in quietly.” Kee said, watching the Cardassians move among the structures.

Ren glanced around for other input, but nobody had any immediate suggestions.

“There’s always ‘the easy way’.” Kee said.

‘The easy way’ was what they called it, but it was anything but. She and Cadda would pose as prostitutes with Ren as their peddler. They’d done it a number of times, and it was certainly less risky than trying to shoot their way in before something happened to the prisoners.

But she hated it all the same. Especially on Cadda’s behalf. Yet she never resisted playing her part. Kee admired her for it. At the age of 15, Kee hated the fact that she herself could successfully pass as one of _them_ , and had for over a year now. For that matter she knew Ren disliked using the two of them this way, but the fact was that it worked.

With a sigh, he nodded to the two of them.

* * *

Ren was, by nature, a cautious and restrained person. As much so as one can be while leading a rambunctious and zealous group of freedom fighters. Kee had often thought that it was exactly that part of his personality that made him so good at it, that he could take this group of theirs and temper their cocky raucousness into something useful.

She tried to stifle a snort of laughter at the swagger he put on for this performance as they walked toward the entrance of the encampment.

With one arm possessively around each of their shoulders he led them down an old animal path that the Cardassians had cleared away for their use. His ‘girls’ both slipped an arm around his waist. The guard at the gate allowed them to approach up to a point. “That’s far enough. What is your business here?”

“The Ferengi say ‘It's always good to know about new customers before they walk in your door.’” Ren said smoothly. “Seems to me you recently set up here. I’m simply a business man offering his services to your glinn and his men. But if he’s not interested…” they started to turn away.

“Wait here.” The guard stepped back a few paces and spoke quietly into his comm unit. Ren gently squeezed their shoulders as much for his own reassurance as theirs.

The guard returned to the gate and opened it, “Step forward.” Once inside all three were scanned and patted down. The two females more thoroughly than Ren. Probing Cardassian hands groped across her breasts, down her sides to her waist and hips, then along the inside of her thighs. Kee did her best to hide her disgust at being handled in that manner by seeming impatient.

“Hey!” Ren objected, “That’s for paying customers.” But the guards ignored him.

Once cleared, the three of them were led into the building that Joial had indicated had those heat signatures. Just inside the outer door the short hallway came to an end at an alcove with doors on the left and right. The door on the right opened as a glinn stepped out, looking the two pseudo prostitutes up and down. He stepped to the side and ushered them into his office, but put a hand in the middle of Ren’s chest to block his way. “I’ll take it from here. Let you know what I think they’re worth.”

“That’s not the way we do business.” Ren protested.

“It is now. Or we can just get rid of you and take them for free.”

Ren backed down, she and Cadda could handle themselves and he knew it. “If either of them is injured-“

The glinn waved off Ren’s threat “Don’t worry, you’ll be compensated accordingly.”

Kee gave Ren what she hoped was a sufficiently reassuring look before the door closed him off from them.

Then she stood side by side with Cadda as the glinn looked them over.

A deadly team.

He ran his fingers along the inside of the collar of her shirt, pulling it open. Faster than he could react she grabbed his hand and slammed the heal of her other hand into his elbow, dislocating it.

Cadda reacted by wrapping her hands around his neck and pulling his face down to collide with her knee to break his nose.

Kee grabbed the phaser off of his belt as Cadda’s elbow connected with the back of his neck, knocking him to the ground, but still conscious.

He looked at the phaser Kee pointed at his head, blood dripping from his nose. “You do understand that if you fire that, alarms will go off, and you won’t leave this room alive.”

Kee shifted her weight to her left foot and kicked his smirking face, his head snapped back, knocking him out. “Yeah, we know.”

She tossed the phaser to Cadda so Kee could get to work on the glinn’s computer. She pulled a small isoliniar rod out of her shoe and placed it in a receptacle. The rod contained a program written by her uncle giving them access to most Cardassian computer systems.

At least until the next set of security updates came out.

First, she engaged the door lock, then pulled up the security feeds.

One camera showed Ren waiting outside the door with a phaser jammed in his ribs, and another showed that the holding cells were filled with six Bajoran rebels that she recognized, relief washed over her when she saw that Traie was there. “That’s them.”

“Now how to get to them.” Cadda said after binding the glinn’s hands. She looked up, “Is that hatch a roof access?”

Kee followed her eyes, then looked back at the computer to pull up a schematic of the campsite. “Yes. And… it looks like there’s another one there in the holding cell module.” She pointed to what looked like a storage room connected to the area with the holding cells.

“How tall are the other structures?”

Kee studied the schematic, following her line of thinking. “None taller than this one. As long as we stay low, nobody should be able to see us unless they’re up on this ridge here.”

“Which is where our people are.”

“Right. Although I bet there’s a camera up there.”

She pointed to a tall post on the schematic, then switched back to the security cameras and called up an interface programmed into the isoliniar rod. “I’ll set the cameras on a loop. Then start the phaser turrets on a maintenance cycle. That ought to give us a good 15 minutes.”

After she rigged the cameras she lifted Cadda up onto her shoulders to reach the hatch in the ceiling. It opened with some effort and she barely managed to keep it from banging against the roof as it opened. After she jumped back down to the floor, Kee initiated the maintenance mode on the phaser turrets and removed the isoliniar rod.

Cadda got back on her shoulders and pulled herself up and out of the hatch then leaned back in to lift up Kee.

They moved quickly, keeping as low as possible with their soft-souled shoes padding quietly across the roof.

“You’re sure your hack to the security cameras worked, right?” Cadda mumbled, only partly joking.

“We’ll find out soon enough, I guess.” They reached the other end of the structure where the second hatch was located.

Kee lifted the door a crack while Cadda peered through. “We’re good.” Then she lifted it the rest of the way up and dropped through.

Kee waited a second and dropped through too, crouching as she hit the floor. The room was dark, but enough light came through the hatch from the starry sky to see that it was a storage room like they had expected.

As her eyes adjusted, she could see a thin sliver of light coming in under the door. She watched it and finally saw two small shadows move across… a pair of boots.

“Hand me the phaser,” She whispered, almost inaudible.

When Cadda did, she adjusted the setting to the lowest level. Cadda’s face was barely visible in the darkness, but she looked ready. Kee pressed the button to open the door and leveled the phaser at the side of the guard’s head as the door opened.

“This is set low enough not to trip the alarms, but at this range it will cause permanent brain damage.”

The guard wisely raised his hands, Kee lifted the strap of a rifle off of his shoulder and Cadda pulled a hand phaser from his hip.

He tried to lunge at her, but Kee made good on her threat and fired the phaser directly against his head. He fell to the floor, essentially brain dead. She finally took a look at the prisoners. “You guys ready to check out?” She joked, rewarded with slightly amused murmurs from them.

Kee handed the isoliniar rod to Cadda and she and worked on lowering the force fields. Once she did Kee handed Prortu the hand phaser she carried, keeping the rifle for herself.

No time for a proper greeting, her eyes locked with Traie’s for only a moment, but it was enough.

Prortu handed it to one of her team and checked for another phaser under the console and found one. “Is anyone else with you?”

“Ren’s on the other side of that door with a phaser on him.” Cadda told them. “The rest are on the ridge waiting for our signal.”

“Good, let’s move.” Prortu said.

She, Cadda and Kee moved to the door and raised their phasers.

* * *

Ren had every confidence in his team members’ ability to handle one Cardassian. Especially those two. Prophets help any poor soul who had to go up against them. But if somehow the glinn had gotten the upper hand… Kee and Cadda were not only two of his best fighters but he cared a great deal for them, he couldn’t lose them.

Especially Kee. She’d been with him through so much the last few years. She was always right there, dependable, steady. That was probably why he’d lost it with her a few weeks earlier when she’d disobeyed orders. Her of all people. He’d counted on her, trusted her in the most crucial position in that operation. It still stung, but he’d get over it eventually. He only hoped she would too.

The door behind them slid open with a quiet mechanical noise and both Ren and the Cardassian guarding him turned.

Two hand phasers were instantly at the guard’s head. Kee stood between Prortu and Cadda with a phaser rifle. Ren took the phaser from the guard’s hand and a moment later Kee smashed the butt of the rifle up into the guard’s face, knocking him out with one blow. “Miss us?” She said with a smirk.

An urgent voice came over the guard’s comm unit. _“Targets! On the ridge!”_

With only half of them armed, the rebels moved out of the structure and ran for cover.

* * *

Kee slid low behind a piece of equipment with Traie who was still unarmed. The chaos of battle hadn’t set in yet and she enjoyed a moment by his side in the silence. Then it began, phaser blasts pelted the ground on either side and more of them farther away where the others had taken cover.

She just barely caught site of a Cardassian not far away, getting up the nerve to lean out and take a shot at them. Just as he did so, she picked him off.

He was close enough that Traie could dart over there and grab his weapon. He pressed his lips against hers for a quick kiss. “Thanks.” He said as she laid down cover for him.

She saw Ren give the group up on the ridge the signal that they were all out. Several objects were lobbed over the ridge, landing near the two largest structures. Those would be Naren’s homemade grenades. She ducked and covered her head. Three explosions in rapid succession rained down dirt and debris on the base.

With smoke as cover she began firing continuously, pausing only long enough to be sure the phase emitter wouldn’t overload. Three more explosions. By her count they only had two left. As she continued firing, she moved toward the entrance, killing or injuring Cardassians along the way. Prortu was already there, laying down cover for anyone coming out.

They waited by the gate for more of her colleagues to emerge from the chaos. After the last few hurried by them Prortu said “That’s everybody.” Kee could never quite grasp her ability to keep track of people in the midst of battle.

She fired a few more times back into the base camp and followed her up the path. Together they slipped into the thick underbrush, traveling parallel to the path.

Kee bent down and grabbed her pack that she had stashed there earlier, noting that Ren’s and Cadda’s were already gone. She slipped one side onto her shoulder and awkwardly pulled up the other strap, having to work it around her weapon.

Only moments later, they heard Cardassians coming up the path. Prortu and Kee pressed themselves silently against a pair of tree trunks. Kee breathed slowly, keeping perfectly still. She counted four of them. Once they had passed, Prortu caught her eye. _Come on_. She mouthed with a nod toward the Cardassians.

Kee nodded and followed her leader’s counterpart as she split off away from the path. There was a shortcut where they could head off the Cardassians, but they’d have to go down into the ravine and across a stream, then get back up onto the ridge.

Sure enough, Prortu approached the edge of the drop-off and started picking her way down. Kee followed, using rocky ledges and trees that grew out sideways for leverage. When they neared the bottom, Prortu went into a controlled slide on the slick leaf litter. Again, Kee followed, working to keep control of the descent, and slid to a stop right next to the elder woman.

A few more steps and they were at the water’s edge. Kee wasn’t wearing her boots and had been dreading crossing the stream ever since she realized what they were going to do, but she followed obediently, tracking along the creek looking for a place to cross. If it had been earlier in the spring, they’d never have been able to cross without wading in up to their waists, but even in late spring it was deep enough with meltwater runoff to get soaked if they fell in.

They reached a point where the stream was wide and shallow, dotted with dry rocks. Kee watched the ridgeline on either side of the stream while Prortu broke out of the cover of the trees and nearly ran across the tops of the rocks.

Once she was across, she backed up into the trees on the other side and it was Kee’s turn. She bit her lip, slung her rifle across her back and let out a breath, then dashed across the stream. She missed a few of the exposed rocks and ended up with both feet wet by the time she was back into the safety of the trees.

It took longer to climb back up the side of the ravine, the two women taking turns boosting and lifting each other.

Finally, Prortu was back on the upper ledge and reached a hand down to lift Kee up. Without giving her time to catch her breath, she was off again toward the Cardassians.

They moved quickly at first, slowing down to move more quietly as they came upon the path. Prortu darted across to the other side only moments before they began hearing the sound of approaching Cardassians.

Barely visible in the dark, Prortu motioned to Kee to watch for her signal.

Kee nodded, kneeling down in the dirt behind a tree and readied her phaser.

When they had reached some predetermined distance, Prortu gave the signal to open fire. They shot the first two, but the others ducked into the treeline for cover.

Kee moved around the back side of the tree and shot at the edge of a Cardassian uniform. Phaser fire answered back. She fired again as she moved behind a large rock where she’d have a better line of sight.

As soon as she stopped firing, the Cardassian shot back, but she’d already moved around to the other side of the rock. She edged out from behind it, lined up her shot and shot him in the back.

Kee didn’t hear any other phaser fire anymore. It was difficult to see now that the brightness of the phaser fire had destroyed her night vision, so she waited and listened.

There were no sounds of breaking branches, no calls back to base for backup, only complete silence. Prortu, of course, would make no sound alive or dead.

As soon as she could see in the darkness again she crept back toward the path, unsure who she’d find alive there.

Before she reached the path, though, Prortu appeared out of nowhere. “Are you ok?” She said in hushed tones.

“Yeah.” Kee replied, still blinking the streaks out of her eyes. Without responding, Prortu led them the rest of the way back to the rendezvous point.

When they arrived, they found the members of the two cells loosely grouped together checking their weapons, tending to minor injuries and wiping the soot of Naren’s explosives off of themselves.

Kee mumbled some greetings and sat next to Traie on a fallen tree, reaching into her pack to pull out some proper clothing and footwear.

He waited to get her attention and said, “You look really nice.”

She pushed him off of the log in mock offence, but laughed anyway.


	7. Survivors

_Bajor: 9368 (2366, Earth calendar)_

It was way too quiet as Kee approached the town called Hegasa. By now, she should have heard the equipment that ran the granary, or other machines of daily life, or the hum of many voices even, but there was only silence up ahead.

The Resistance had a substantial foothold in the town, almost everyone there had helped them at some point, and if the Cardassias had found out… she hurried her pace.

By the time she reached the demarcation that indicated the entrance to the town, she was at a full jog, visually scanning the area around her and the sky for anything out of the ordinary.

Passing through the entrance, she stopped in her tracks. The scene before her twisted her stomach. It had been a slaughter. Bodies lying everywhere. The Cardassians had come in and cut them all down wherever they were.

Despite the already putrid smell in the air, Kee forced her legs to move her forward, there could be survivors, though there was nothing to indicate anyone had come through here since the slaughter.

She made her way between the bodies. Most of them were people she’d interacted with only a few weeks ago. All of them killed by a disruptor blast to the chest, the head or the back. And, based on the degradation of the bodies, it had been at least a few days.

The farther she went into the carnage, the thicker the air was with the smell of rotting flesh. She pulled the collar of her jacket over her mouth and nose.

Near the center of the common area, there was a cluster of bodies that were different than the rest. No phaser burs were evident and there was a dark area around them where a lot of blood had soaked into the ground.

Against her own instinct, Kee stepped closer to investigate and her stomach immediately wretched at the sight. Three individuals, two men and a woman, had been cut open from their neck down. The contents of their abdomens lay spilled on the ground.

Kee backed away quickly to find a place to vomit. She stumbled to her knees and coughed up the meager contents of her stomach onto the ground. She knelt on her hands and knees, gasping for breath and spitting out the taste of stomach acid.

For a moment, she was overwhelmed. These people had supplied the Resistance with food, shelter, had given their town as a staging area from which they could mobilize for their attacks on the Cardassians. They had done what was right to save their people and this was what happened.

She sat back on her heels and closed her eyes while she worked to reign in her feelings, concentrating on steady breathing to slow her racing heart. She took a deep breath only to gag again on the foul air.

When she opened her eyes, she felt tiny and alone surrounded by an overwhelming loss of life. Like one of those dreams where the world is suddenly huge around her. And, for a moment, she allowed her shoulders to sag under the weight of it.

With effort, she shoved those feelings down to a place inside her and stood. She had a job to do here. There could be survivors here too traumatized or frightened to come out.

She glanced to the row of shops that boxed in the town square, deciding where to start when she heard a noise behind her. Her head whipped around to identify the source, but there was nothing. Only another row of shops. It had sounded like something metal hitting a hard object. Like something fell… or was bumped.

Walking carefully around the bodies, she slipped a tiny, concealed phaser out of her clothes. She had avoided carrying any weapons that could be found on her if she was patted down by a Cardassian. This one was the exception, it was small enough to hide in the palm of her hand if it looked like she would be searched.

It only took moments for her to reach a row of boardwalk-style storefronts. Her heels made only the slightest noise as she stepped carefully onto one of them, a tapestry shop that looked like it had once been an eatery. It was dark inside except for a repeating flash of light coming from a back room.

The room was empty except for a hanging light in the middle of the ceiling, swinging back and forth. She didn’t dare let her guard down, someone or something had bumped it and they were most likely still here. She could only hope it was a survivor and not a Cardassian left behind to catch anyone returning to the site.

She stepped into the room to confirm it was empty. The walls and floor were made of sheet metal like it had been used for cold storage at one point.

A creek behind her and she whirled around in time to see the thick metal door slam shut, locking her in. Desperately she tried to knob, but it just moved loosely, broken.

“Hey!” She shouted, pounding on the door with the side of her wrist. “Hey!”

She turned to search for another way out, but the room was sealed. The only opening in the metal walls was a cooling duct and it was far too small for her. She fingered her phaser as she paced, pondering using it to blast a hold in the wall, but thought better of it. If she tried to cut through the metal, the room would quickly turn into an oven before she got through. Besides, she was sure the little power cell didn’t have nearly enough juice for that.

So that left her to pace the room a few times before landing a hard kick against the door which did nothing but send a shock of pain up her leg. She could do nothing but wait for her captor to show themselves.

* * *

At the sound of metal-on-metal, she looked up to see that the louvers of the cooling duct twist open. She immediately raised her phaser toward the opening, but a light was shined through, blinding her.

 _“Who are you?”_ A computerized voice asked. Through her fingers she used to block the light, she could make out part of a data padd. Whoever this was didn’t want her to make out their voice. A Cardassian wouldn’t bother, so she decided to give her real name.

“My name is Kee.”

There was a pause while they tapped the next message into the padd. _“Are you Resistance?”_

She thought for a moment about how to answer. A lie would be obvious, she was carrying a phaser. If it wasn’t a Cardassian, it could be a survivor and they might be more likely to trust her if she was honest. “Yes.” She said simply.

Another pause, she could barely hear the soft beeping of the padd. _“What are you doing here?”_

“I came to meet someone.” She jumped in with her own questions before they could ask another. “Who are you? What happened here?”

No response.

“I was just starting to look for survivors when you locked me in here. Do you need help? I can help you.” She continued.

Again, no response, but this time she could hear faint voices, several of them, whispering.

The large door unlatched and swung wide open. She stepped out, expecting to come face-to-face with these survivors, but found herself looking down into three small, dirty, wide-eyed faces. A weight settled onto her shoulders, the survivors were children. They must have seen or at least heard the horrors that had happened. Maybe their own parents murdered.

“I’m Yozi, Will you help us?” One of them said in her tiny voice.

The need combined with the sweetness of the question sent chills down her spine. “Of course. You can come with me. My friends will help find a safe place for you.”

“No!” A boy exclaimed. “You have to help the others too.”

Others.

“When the Cardassians came,” The first girl explained, “My father, he’s the village teacher, told us to take all of our friends to the hiding place.”

“How many are there?” Kee asked.

“Thirteen.”

There was no way she could travel with that many children. “Okay. Show me this hiding place.” She wondered what kind of hiding place could have kept the Cardassians’ sensors from spotting them immediately.

Instead of going out the front door, Yozi started walking toward a door that led from the shop they were in to the one next door.

Kee felt a tiny, cold hand slip into hers and looked down to see the small face of the third child looking up at her with her eyebrows bunched against her nasal ridges. On her other side, the boy held out his hand for her with a stoic face. She reached back to slip the phaser into her waistband and grasped his hand as they followed the girl next door.

“That’s Cihol and Pamar.” She said the second name with emphasis on the ‘ar’. “All of these shops had cellars when they were first built, but they were sealed up before the Occupation so the Cardassians don’t know about them.” Yozi said without taking a breath as they passed through two more shops, one that sold housewares and another that sold woodworking tools. “My father and some of the other grownups opened up one of them and they were going to hide supplies and weapons there before…” She abruptly stopped before mentioning what had ended the project. “Um, so that’s where we hid.”

They crossed to the next shop. By Kee’s count, it was the last one on the block. This one was a clothing store. Yozi led them to the back where there was a long rack of clothes that spanned most of the back wall. She pushed some of the clothes to the side and pulled a false panel out of the wall, revealing a passage with a ladder leading down.

Yozi went down first, followed by the other two and Kee stepped inside, closing the panel behind her.

She reached the bottom of the ladder and turned to find twelve dirty, wide-eyed faces looking up at her and one baby cradled in a girl’s arms. The girl holding the baby looked like she was the oldest at maybe eight, and though the baby was sleeping, her red-rimmed eyes said she’d been crying recently, and a lot.

They all looked absolutely shell-shocked and weary, tugging at her heart. “How long have you been here?”

“Two days.” Yozi said.

“Do you have food?”

They shook their heads in a unison response.

“Water?”

Pomar pointed silently to the corner where there was an old, rust-covered faucet over a dirty drain in the floor.

“You have to run it for a minute before clean water comes out.” Another boy offered.

Looking around the old, rough-walled cellar, she saw that someone, probably Yozi’s father and his associates, had broken an opening into the next cellar over, but it was too dark to see beyond. The rough stone walls had a quality to them, bands of what was unmistakably kelbonite. That must have been how they went undetected down here during the massacre above.

First priority was to get them some food. She took two ration packs out of her back pocket. It wasn’t much for this many, but it was all she had.

“Here, split them between you.” She said as they quickly tore them open and broke off a piece each. “Is there a food store up there?”

“Yes.” Yozi said. “But it’s on the other side of the square.”

They would have had to cross where the bodies were, that explained why they couldn’t get to it. She didn’t blame them at all. But it must have been torture to go hungry for two full days when there was food so close.

“I’ll go get some food for you.” She said but several little hands suddenly grasped her arms.

“No, you can’t go out there.” One of them pleaded.

“It’s okay. I’ll be fine and I’ll come right back.” She pulled away and grasped the rungs of the ladder but turned back before climbing. “Stay here. Don’t follow me.”

* * *

Kee had seen more dead bodies in the last three years than anyone should in a lifetime, but nothing like this. After the first time she’d killed a Cardassian, Ren had told her that it would and should never get easier. The same held true when confronted with a scene like this one. Each body represented a life lost and many of them also a child down in that cellar that would never see their parent alive. She hoped they could find a way to get them out of here without having to witness this.

She was grateful when she arrived at the food shop and stepped inside. The rotting smell in there was mostly vegetables, at least, instead of flesh. She grabbed a canvas bag from the front counter and began filling it with shelf-stable foods: legumes, fruits, vegetables, soups. There was only so much that the bag would hold, but she at least took enough for each of them to have one package per day for three days.

Then she thought of the baby. She didn’t know much about babies, but was sure this one was not old enough for solid food. She searched the shelves, eventually finding one single container of infant formula.

With her haul slung over her shoulder, she steeled herself to go back outside into the quickly falling night. She walked as quickly as she could manage back through the square, only looking at the bodies enough to avoid them. She desperately wished she could stop and give them respectful burials, but there were so many of them, it would take days. Her first duty was to their children and she was sure the dead would have agreed.

When she reached the row of shops she’d come from, she reentered through the housewares shop to locate a bottle for the baby, which she found towards the back. Then she continued to the rear of the clothing shop and back down into the cellar. The heavy bag made it difficult to descend the ladder, but she managed to lower herself carefully down to the bottom.

With several cries of “she’s back!” they gathered around her.

“Take one each and go sit down.” She told them, holding the bag open.

They obediently complied, but she was only half way through the group when the first ones began calling out, “I can’t open it.”

“Okay. I’ll help you when everyone has taken one.” She said, feeling the pressure squeeze her shoulders.

The girl holding the baby took hers last and Kee told her, “I’ll take her in just a sec.” Then she started down the line of food packs that were held out to her, peeling the top off just to have the next one shoved into her hands in an endless flow of demand.

When she had opened the last one, she turned to see that one of them had bent and twisted his lid into the shape of a spoon and the others were copying. Finally, she awkwardly took the baby from the girl.

All of the jostling woke up the baby and she wailed with hunger.

Kee tried to hold her close to her chest for comfort, but she pushed away to scream to her face. She had no idea how much formula to use, but put as much as she guessed would work into the bottle, fumbling with one hand, then knelt down at the faucet. Just like the boy had said, the water was rusty-brown at first, so she waited with a howling baby resting on her knee until the water ran clear. She still had her doubts about the cleanliness of the water, but filled the bottle anyway.

She shook the bottle to mix it while she walked back to the ring of children and knelt on one knee, cradling the baby in the crook of her arm, supported with her other knee. She barely touched the bottle to the baby’s wide open, bawling mouth and she clamped down on it immediately, urgently drawing the formula into her mouth between gulps.

Kee closed her eyes for a moment, enjoying the sudden silence, then opened them again to watch the children and had to smile. Without any instruction from her, they were sharing their food packs back and forth so each one got a little of everything. The beautiful scene of pure cooperation almost made her forget the horrors above them in the street.

The baby in her arms had slowed way down with the bottle a little over half empty. Something dawned on her that she remembered from watching grownups care for babies when she was younger and she carefully took the bottle away, drawing an immediate cry. Despite the caterwauling, she sat her up on her knee with one hand under her chin and the other on her back and tapped her heel rhythmically on the floor.

Quickly, a belch erupted from the baby’s throat, drawing an uproar of laughter from the children. Kee couldn’t help but chuckle as she laid the baby back down and gave her back the remainder of her dinner. She continued to drink with a trembling sigh. Throughout it all, Kee kept eyeing the dark opening in the side wall.

With full stomachs, the children began chattering and laughing, some of them started chasing each other around.

“Hey, hey, hey! Guys! Settle down.” She called and was shocked to see that they obeyed. Did they really think she was that much older than them?

By the time the bottle was empty, the baby was sound asleep, exhausted from all the crying. Kee knew how she felt. Carefully handing her off to one of the older children, she slipped a flashlight out of her pocket and ducked through the hole in the wall.

In the light of her flashlight, she found piles of disheveled blankets. “This is where you’ve been sleeping?”

“Yes.” Yozi said, following her in.

Kee swept her flashlight around the room and spotted another hole in the opposite wall and another room beyond, but when she started through, Yozi grabbed her wrist firmly.

“No! You can’t go all the way back!”

“Why not?”

“It’s haunted!”

Kee looked down at her, but she was absolutely serious. “It’s not haunted, it’s just dark.”

“Don’t go!” She pleaded.

Kee eyed the other room, by now, she could see another hole in the far wall of that room. It looked like they had opened up all of the cellars on the row. When she turned back to Yozi, the terror on her face made her heart melt.

“Okay. I won’t go back there for now. But I do need to contact my friends to tell them what happened.” It wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have in front of them, but Yozi wouldn’t budge and now about half of the others had joined them.

Sighing, she retrieved her comm unit from her pocket and activated it. It wasn’t like hearing her talk about it would make it worse for them.

After several minutes of near silence waiting for Ren to respond, his voice broke through. _“Kee. Did you make it to the meet?”_

“Not exactly.” She said cautiously.

 _“What do you mean?”_ Worry bled through in his voice.

“The Cardassians must have found out they were helping us. The whole village has been wiped out.”

Seconds of silence ticked by while he processed the news.

“I found some survivors.” She offered.

_“Bring them back to the rendezvous with you, we’ll figure out somewhere for them to go.”_

“I can’t. They’re children. Thirteen of them, none more than eight-years-old, I think.”

A loaded sigh reached her through the commlink. _“We’ll come to you, then. But we can’t reach your position for another day and a half. Can you hold where you are until then?”_

“Yes.” As long as the Cardassians didn’t come back, she thought, but didn’t want to add that out loud in front of them.

_“We’ll get there as soon as we can. Out.”_

It had been, what, maybe two hours since she’d arrived? The thought of keeping this up for another thirty-nine hours was beyond daunting. She stole a glance at the little ones that were now in her care as a weight settled into the pit of her stomach. Could she do this? Did she have a choice?

She looked a little closer at their faces. Despite the energy surge after the meal, their eyelids were droopy and their eyes bleary. She should at least be able to kill the next eight or nine hours by putting them to bed.

* * *

Hours.

It must have taken hours to get them all to go to sleep. She’d get most of them to quiet down when two would start whispering. Just when she got them settled, other little groups would start up.

Meanwhile, Kee was holding a sleeping baby in the hollow of her crisscrossed legs, worried about waking her up and desperately trying not to lose her cool. Snapping at them right now could topple their very precarious emotions.

By the time they were all asleep, she was far beyond the end of her patience. How could she possibly make it through a day and a half? But then, with them all asleep, their soft breathing and their sweet, relaxed faces melted all of that frustration away.

She sat with the baby, she’d learned her name was Caris, in her lap and her back against the wall. After setting her communicator to pick up Cardassian frequencies to alert her if any came into range, she laid her head back and dozed for a bit.

Just as she was reaching a level of sleep to do her some good, what sounded like an alarm klaxon blared through the space. Her heart raced as she blinked to alertness. It was only when it stopped for a breath that she realized it was Caris, wanting to be fed again.

Kee shushed the children back to sleep and hurried into the first cellar to prepare another bottle. As quickly as possible, she plunged the bottle into the baby’s mouth to stop the auditory assault. Still shaking from the adrenaline rush, she rested her head against the wall and closed her eyes wearily. She couldn’t do this.

* * *

Between the baby’s needs and keeping the other children from waking each other up, she managed to get a few minutes of rest… total.

She could do this, she told herself. She had raided enemy compounds, face down Cardassians in battle, defeated them in hand-to-hand combat, helped plan rescue missions and assassinations. She could handle a group of children and one baby. She just had to keep control, and to do that, she needed a plan. Bored children tended to find their own games to play and those were often trouble, she knew that first hand from not so many years ago when she was the one getting into trouble. She had to keep them busy.

Once she had gathered them into a circle, she got their attention. “We’re going to play some games until my friends get here. Do any of you know how to play broken commlink?”

They didn’t, so she explained the basics: one person thinks of a phrase and whispers it to the next person and so on down the line. They caught on quickly and spent a good long time doing it, so she searched her memories for all of the games she used to play with her friends back in the refugee camp. Complete-the-story, hand clapping games, chanting games, the vedek the devil and the investigator, and so on. Caris alternated between napping and wakefulness, slap-grabbing her face seemed to be her favorite game while awake.

By the time the chronometer on her communicator indicated it was late afternoon, her voice was raw from giving directions and keeping the children focused. With all they had been through, she was amazed at their courage and resilience. Though, she supposed they could still be in denial or shock. Whatever was the reason, she was grateful that they were doing so well. They could properly grieve once they were in a safe place. For now, she needed them to stay positive.

As they ate another meal and she gave the baby yet another bottle, she shifted to stretch her back. The muscles between her shoulders felt tight and protested sharply with every movement. Eventually, the pain in her back became too much and she handed the baby to one of the children that was finished eating.

She stood for a long stretch and slipped the flashlight out of her pocket again, heading for the adjacent cellars.

One of the boys, Azol hurried after her. “No! It’s haunted!” He insisted, repeating Yozi’s belief.

“It’s not haunted. Believe me, there are no such thing as _boryas_. I’m just going to go look.”

This time, she didn’t let their fear stop her. She needed to see what was back there, if anything. If there was something they could use or another way in or out, she needed to know about it. Besides, she badly needed a few minutes to herself. She felt bad for it, they were in this situation by no fault of their own and needed her so much, but she had to get away for a little bit.

She stepped through into the empty third room, passing her light across the walls and ceiling and crossed it in just a few steps. There were rusty holes in the wall where there had once been a ladder, but no longer and the shaft to the surface was solidly patched with plaster.

Then she ducked through to the fourth. It was full of old, pre-occupation furniture, mostly broken and stacked to the ceiling. Someone must have used it to get rid of the old things before it was closed off, thinking no one would ever be down here again. The ladder was still there, but the opening was similarly sealed up.

Some of the stacks looked precarious, so she squeezed through, careful not to touch anything. Then she was at the end. There were five shops above, but only four cellars. They must not have knocked out the next wall. She turned in a slow circle and passed her flashlight around the room. No supplies, nothing of any useful purpose, and definitely no _boryas_ , so she backtracked back to where the children were grouped together waiting for her.

“It’s not haunted.” She told them. “It’s just a bunch of old furniture. Why don’t you lay down and see if we can get some sleep?”

Emphasis on ‘we’, she thought.

* * *

Kee woke with a start and panic immediately followed. She was pinned down. Her arms, her legs, her body, all immobilized. The Cardassians could have released some kind of gas into the cellar to knock them out and take them without a fight.

Through the roar of blood rushing through her ears, though, she could faintly hear the children’s soft, relaxed breathing. She tried moving again more slowly and began to realize why she was pinned down. Some of them had sidled up to sleep next to her and some were even draped across her body. She let out a slow breath even while her heart continued to race.  
She checked to see the baby was still safely nestled in her bedding, breathing evenly. So, what had awakened her?

She listened for foreign sounds, but there were none until her communicator erupted with static and broken Cardassian voices. They must have been returning to the area for survivors. Her heart rate surged again and she began shaking the children awake while carefully extracting herself from the pile.

“Wake up! Wake up!” She urged while trying not to wake the baby.

Sleepy faces blinked at her with sudden fright. They recognized the sound of the enemy. Kee quickly silenced the communicator.

“Get up, get up, get up.” She hurried them onto their feet. A deep vibration began to shake the ground under and around them, signaling a skimmer landing. “Hold hands and spread out.”

If they stayed clustered together, there was a stronger chance the Cardassian sensors would pick them up even through the kelbonite. Spreading out would at least reduce the concentration of their biosigns.

She thought about her trip outside the first day she was there. She’d been careful not to leave a trail, but had she been careful enough?

A few sniffles here and there, then the tears began to flow down their faces.

She shushed them quiet. “I know you guys are scared, but you have to stay quiet.” She gently scooped Caris up, praying she’d stay asleep but she had no such luck. First, a couple of sobs, then a deep breath and Kee knew what was coming next, the full-lung wail. She desperately bounced and swayed to calm her while Mirda scrambled to prepare a bottle.

Kee tried cupping her hand over Caris’ mouth, but that only made her angrier. The noise of the skimmer would die down any moment and anyone above them would be able to hear the commotion.

Mirda scurried back with a bottle and Kee plunged it into the baby’s mouth, but she was so distraught that she wouldn’t close down. She choked on some of the formula that had trickled out, but still wouldn’t drink. Kee held the bottle with her chin and pressed up under Caris’ jaw to close her mouth. Finally, she realized what was there and wrapped her tiny lips around the bottle.

Kee barely dared to breath in the sudden silence. They could hear muffled orders shouted above them, the diminishing sound of the skimmer’s engines as it shut down, then another sound that she couldn’t identify at first. Short energy bursts, almost like a phaser but without an impact or an explosion at the end. After a few more, she was sure it was a phaser, but it just fizzled out at the end.

Then it dawned on her what they were doing. They were vaporizing the bodies. One after another. This was a cleanup crew.

“What’s that sound?” Pomar whispered to her with his eyes wide.

She couldn’t bear to tell them that the bodies of their parents and everyone they had known all their lives were being erased as though they had never existed. People who had helped raise them, who they might have run errands for, who had probably hauled them back to their parents when they were getting into trouble. Every caregiver and provider they had ever known.

“I don’t know.” She lied.

They stood, frozen and silent while the eerie sound carried on above them.

Kee could hear rising voices up there, urgently speaking, barking orders, maybe, but they were too muffled to make out what they were saying. Could they have detected their lifesigns?

She braced for the worst. It sounded like they were directly above them in the shops.

Then she heard the commotion of clothes racks knocked over and the panel at the top of the ladder was yanked open.

“Go, go, go! Get back there as far as you can!” She told the children, ushering them deeper into the hideout.

“But it’s scary back there!” Yozi argued.

“There’s nothing back there. You have to hide. Now!” She said, handing the baby to Mirda, but they didn’t budge. “Go!” She shouted. She could already hear the first Cardassian climbing down.

This time, they obeyed, hurrying into the darkness.

Kee stepped through into the second cellar, tucked herself behind the opening and held her phaser ready. The small weapon, no larger than a slip of latinum, was only meant for a quick getaway, not defending against an assault. She’d have a dozen shots, maybe fifteen if she lowered the power, but she decided to leave it on the higher setting. If that skimmer was even half full of soldiers, there were enough Cardassians that an extra three shots wouldn’t mean anything.

If… when?.. the Cardassians got through her to the children, their fate would be unthinkable. Orphans were less than worthless in Cardassian opinion, seen as a burden, as fodder. They’d be taken to one of the understaffed, undersupplied orphanages where they would have to fend for themselves, becoming either bullies or victims.

The girls might be sent to a ‘school’ where they would be indoctrinated to believe they were worth only what a Cardassian would pay for them. At best, grow up to be comfort women, at worst… much worse.

But Kee didn’t see any way for her to stop it. Her control slipped and she allowed panic to overwhelm her for a moment. Trapped. Alone. Vulnerable. She gulped rapid breaths of air until she stopped herself. With slow, methodical breathing, she forced herself to relax and focus on the sound of boots on the rungs of the ladder. Her heart still pounded, but slower and controlled.

The moment the Cardassian’s boots touched the floor, she leaned out and picked him off with a shot to the chest.

One.

The noise from her phaser was so loud in the small space that the baby started crying somewhere behind her. It sounded far away and muffled. At least that meant they had hidden themselves as far back as possible.

The next Cardassian began to emerge down the ladder. Now that they knew she was armed, the rest of them wouldn’t be so easy.

She thought about shooting him in the leg, but didn’t want to waste phaser power on a non-kill shot, so she waited for the rest of him to show. By the time his torso could be seen, he already had his phaser ready and pointed in her direction, but he couldn’t see her yet.

She took the last advantage she was likely to get and shot him in the side. It wasn’t an ideal shot, he clung to the ladder for a few seconds before he tumbled down to join his colleague, probably still alive for a few minutes until he bled out from the wound.

Two.

There was a shuffling at the top of the ladder and the next Cardassian dropped straight to the floor into a crouch. She pulled back behind cover just in time to avoid his fierce bombardment of phaser fire that pounded so hard into the wall at her back that she could feel the force of each impact. The deafening sound drowned out the baby’s cries and covered up any indication of how many more of them were coming down.

A few more seconds and he would be forced to stop firing or risk an emergency phaser shutdown. That might be her only opportunity to strike back. Only a second after she had the thought, he ceased firing and she leaned out. Three more of them had come down. She took three rapid shots at them, but only one landed home.

Five. Damn.

The assault began again, this time from three directions. So constant was the attack that the stone wall began to glow red.

She lowered herself down to her knees and bent low under the concentration of the phaser fire. She took a breath and steeled herself to make a move. Raising one hand to shield her eyes from the brightness, she crept out. She pressed her body flat on the floor, fired at her enemy and rolled to the other side of the opening. Two went down, but she’d wasted two additional shots.

Nine.

More boots hit the ground. Three pairs. She didn’t have enough shots left. She was done, but damn if she wouldn’t put up a fight before they took her down.

The weapons fire slowed as they began to think maybe she’d been hit. She waited until it stopped and she heard two of them move in and she swung out and shot them both in the chest at close range, then dove back behind cover as the onslaught resumed.

Eleven.

She stole a glance at her phaser to confirm. One shot left, and it would be a low-power one at that.

The wall began to glow and disintegrate again so she slid a little farther away.

One shot. She had one shot. And then she was either dead or a prisoner.

To hell with it. She stepped out the moment she had an opening and shot one in the chest, but the beam fritzed out without even making it through his uniform.

Defenseless, Kee took a step back. There was nothing more she could do but couldn’t bring herself to give up the children.

Realizing her situation, two of the Cardassians rushed toward her. She took on the first one. Muscle memory taking over, she jammed her knee into his stomach and grabbed for a handhold at his shoulder intending to pull him off balance and to the floor, but the second one arrived and wrapped his arm around her waist.

She felt herself thrown to the floor on her back. A powerful set of hands gripped her wrists and another held her ankles.

She cried out with the strain of trying to free herself but they held her secure. With a jerk of her leg, she kneed the one holding her ankles in the nose, but it didn’t loosen his grip.

Despite her vehement struggles, they were able to flip her onto her stomach and wrenched her arms behind her back, preparing to cuff her.

All she could see was a set of boots step by her toward where the children were hiding. Even with her renewed fight, she couldn’t break free to help them.

Over the baby’s continuing cries, Kee began to become aware of something above them. A fierce barrage of weapons fire. Not the methodical vaporizing of the remains, but the back and forth of a battle.

The Cardassians heard it too. The one standing next to her, stopped and turned toward the entrance with his phaser ready.

She craned her neck to see. Whoever came down first was sure to be shot down.

The noise of battle came closer, echoing down the shaft then suddenly stopped. Footsteps on the rungs of the ladder came next. The Cardassian took aim while the other two held her tight.

With one last, desperate effort, she fought her foot free and kicked the side of his knee. An audible snap and his leg crumbled under him, his shot wet wide and a phaser beam struck him in the chest all in an instant.

The one holding her wrists leaned his entire body weight on her back while the other scrambled for his weapon.

No matter how she tried to twist her body, she couldn’t see what was happening. Another phaser blast and she felt the Cardassian at her feet stumble over her legs and hit the floor.

The pressure on her back disappeared as that one went for his weapon. The phaser beam that sailed over her body to hit him somewhere vital raised the tiny hairs across her skin. She rolled out of the way before his body collapsed onto her.

She was certain who it was that had saved them, but when she sat up to find Ren strolling toward her, all she could do was drop her head to her chest and exhale out a long, slow breath. She hadn’t realized what a heavy weight she’d been carrying until his mere presence lifted it from her shoulders.

“I could come back later if you’re busy.” He teased, jabbing a thumb behind him toward the entrance.

She tried to come up with a suitably sarcastic reply, but had nothing. There were no words to express how glad she was to see him. She couldn’t even manage more than a glance at Ilwea when he dropped to the floor, skipping the last two rungs on the ladder.

Ren picked up a phaser off of one of the dead Cardassians on his way to her and held out his free hand to help her to her feet.

A wave of fatigue washed over her and she rested her forehead against his chest for a moment, sighing deeply. Her hero many times over.

Once she regathered her strength, she straightened back up and took the phaser he offered. Turning towards the back cellar, she called, “It’s safe. You can come out.”

Joial joined them next and began collecting the power cells from the dead Cardassians’ weapons.

Kee hadn’t been aware of when Caris had stopped crying, but as the children began shuffling out of hiding, she saw that she was asleep on Mirda’s shoulder, out cold from the effort. As Ilwea took her, gently cradling her in one arm to pass the scanner over her, she stirred for a moment with a shuddering sigh, but her red-rimmed eyes stayed closed.

“Is everyone okay?” Ren asked, all business now.

Kee’s eyes passed over them and didn’t see any injuries. “I think so.”

“Good. We need to get moving, they’ll send another unit soon. Once we’re out of the area, we’ll figure out what to do with them.”

She slipped the strap of her newly acquired phaser rifle over her shoulder so that it would hang down her back and began the slow process of coaxing these frightened and traumatized children up to the surface and away.


	8. Only Hope

_Bajor: 9368 (2366, Earth calendar)_

He wasn’t used to running so far for so long, but Vatha couldn’t bear to slow down for a moment. He had to find them. His muscles screamed their protest at him, but he kept on. Every step shot pain from his ankle up to his knee after he’d stepped in a hole in the dark and twisted it, but he wouldn’t stop. He realized too late that a bush was full of thorns, but he blew right through it, unable to protect his face from the sharp spines.

He had to get to them.

They were his only hope.

Against the burning ache in his lungs and heart, he kept going, deep into the forbidden zone.

* * *

“…Kee, Traie and Cadda take the left flank, Prortu and I will take the right.” Ren finished assigning positions to members of the two cells. “Let’s move.”

As they were gathering up their gear, they heard the sound of someone moving through the forest. Together, they raised their weapons in silence toward the source. The only other noise was the almost inaudible whine of the power cells warming up. All focus was on the dark forest around them, some in the direction of the sound, some watching the opposite direction in case they were flanked. All trying uselessly to see through the night to identify the threat.

The closer the individual came, the more it became clear that it was not a Cardassian, they tended to lumber through the forest. This sounded much more light-footed. But they didn’t let their guard down one bit.

Along with the others, Kee jumped back a step when a middle-aged Bajoran man burst into the small clearing, but kept her phaser trained on him.

As soon as he saw them, he threw his hands up in surrender and collapsed to his knees, exhausted.

How long had he been running through the forest?

“Please! You have to help me!” He managed to say between desperate gasps.

Prortu knelt down next to him, “Help you? How?”

“They’ve taken them… some of the girls from our town.”

“How did you find us?” Ren asked, his suspicion immediately piqued.

“Alerra’s brother,” he still struggled to slow his breathing, “is a neighbor of mine. He didn’t know exactly where you were, I had to check two other locations before I found you here.”

“And you say they took some girls?” Even with his suspicions, they couldn’t ignore the possibility.

“Yes, they came and grabbed them yesterday. I hope we’re not too late. Please, you have to help. We don’t know what else to do.”

Ren looked at Prortu, she’d already made up her mind to help, but they had a mission to complete. If they missed this opportunity to hit the munitions storage facility, they might not get another for a very long time.

He considered the man, the desperation on his face. “Alright, Kee and Traie go with him and see what you can do, then rendezvous at the bluff-point in two days. Naren and Ilwea, you take over their positions.” With that he and his counterpart lead the group away from Kee, Traie and the man.

“Can you show us where they took them?” Kee asked him.

“We think it’s a place in a neighboring town.” He pushed himself up onto shaky legs and began to lead them.

* * *

They kept a hard pace, but Vatha managed to keep up, seeming unwilling to waste a moment despite his obvious fatigue. Every step seemed to be a sheer force of will for him.

On the way, he described the place where he was fairly certain the girls had been taken. It was a town called Nez, fully controlled by the Cardassians. One of those places that had once been a flourishing Bajoran semi-rural town just at the edge of the forest. The Cardassians had simply rounded up the residents and stuffed them into refugee camps and moved into their homes. Those who resisted were shot. Simple.

It was the same story her mother had told her about how her family had ended up in the refugee camp where she grew up. Same story, different town.

The uncertainty dragged at the pit of her stomach. They had no idea how many Cardassians there were, whether they would be able to get in and out without a fight or if the girls were even still there. All he could tell them was that it was a house at the edge of town. Assuming they hadn’t been moved, at least they wouldn’t have to pick their way through the town.

Then, there was always the possibility that they were being lured into a trap. She dismissed the idea, but only partly. Vatha seemed genuine, but they’d learned that they couldn’t always trust their kinsmen. And the Cardassians wouldn’t hesitate to use one of their own against them in order to capture someone that could provide useful information under interrogation.

But if this was real, they couldn’t afford to turn their backs on them. From the photograph Vatha had shown them, the girls were young, barely pre-teen. Officially, Cardassians didn’t take girls that age, but there were plenty of these places where Cardassians with those tastes could go to get them. Even being technically illegal, nothing was ever done to stop it.

Lights from the town began to cut through the darkness as they neared and slowed their pace. Before they reached the last of the trees, Kee and Traie knelt down to examine the area.

There was a fence that ran the length of the town with a field bar that glowed softly along the top, the kind that could be seen all over Bajor. Beyond the fence were small clusters of buildings. The original structures were easy to pick out, they were arranged sensibly within each large property, made out of native materials and architecture. The Cardassians, however, had added additional buildings, cramming them into every available space on some of the properties. Ugly, too, synthetic materials, boxy designs.

“We saw them taken to that house, there.” Vatha said, pointing out one of them. “Those outbuildings are some kind of storage.”

“Couldn’t be anything terribly valuable in them or there would be a lot more patrols.” Traie observed.

That would give them cover, at least. But first, they had to get past the fence without tripping the alarm.

Traie had pulled out a pair of field binoculars to get a closer look. Kee waited while he studied the target area, biting his bottom lip thoughtfully. He tensed a little, “I think I see one of the girls inside. Ciga, maybe.” Though unnecessary for their task, Vatha had also provided their names.

“Cardassians?”

He continued to visually scan the area, “Wherever they are, I can’t see them.” He handed the binoculars to her and she passed over the area herself, concentrating on the windows of the house, but couldn’t locate the enemy. No way to know how many to expect.

She finally gave up and lowered the binoculars. “We have to get past that fence first anyway.” If they tried to climb it, the force field emitted by the glowing bar across the top would stop them. If they disabled the emitter, the alarm would sound. If they tried to cut the material, the alarm would sound. If they tried to dig under it, the alarm would sound.

She started to hand the binoculars back to him, but he was digging in his pack for something, so she waited. When he finally found what he was looking for, he pulled out some kind of hand-held device that looked like it was three different devices mashed together with a long length of opti-cable attached to it and another matching device at the other end.

“ _What_ is that?” She asked skeptically.

“It’s something Toran has been working on. We attach each of these pieces to the field emitter,” he held up the devices to demonstrate, “and it routes the signal through the opti-cable, creating a break in the field.”

She looked back and forth between his face and the awkwardly constructed apparatus, contemplating trusting the thing with her life. “You can’t be serious.”

“We’ve been looking for a chance to test it.” He said with a gleam in his eyes.

“You haven’t tested it?” She struggled to keep her voice down. “If we put that thing on that fence and it doesn’t work-”

“We’ll either be electrocuted or the alarm will sound and the Cardassians will be on us in minutes.” He concluded, emphasizing to her that he understood the consequences of his proposed test. “But I don’t know any other way to get past one of those fences in the time we have.”

She searched for another option. There were ways to get past the fence, but they didn’t have the equipment, expertise or time that would be needed. Those girls could be in serious trouble right at that very moment, there was no time for caution. She turned to Vatha.

“If anything happens, you get out of here right away.” She told him sternly. “If we make it inside, wait here for us.” She handed him a blade, the extra one she kept in the side pocket of her pack. “When we come out, cut the fence for us, but _wait_ for my signal.”

He wrapped his fingers carefully around the switchblade and nodded his understanding.

“If anything goes wrong in there, get out of here.” She repeated. She would have liked to tell him to go find Ren and the others, but they were on a mission, there was no way he’d be able to locate them.

Traie led the way out of the trees to the fence and handed her one of the questionable devices. He was just tall enough to place his half, but she would have to climb.

She threaded her fingers through the polymer mesh, braced one foot against the support post and hoisted herself up. With a silent count to three from him, they set the devices in place at the same moment.

Kee held her breath, expecting sparks or an electric discharge or the alarm or… something, but all that happened was that the emitter bar between them went dark.

With a surge of exhilaration, she dropped back to the ground and looked to see that he was similarly relieved. If he had really had such low expectations of success, maybe she should have thought more carefully before trying it.

They met in the middle of the deactivated area and Traie laced his fingers together to give her a boost. She placed her foot in his hands and he lifted her up like she weighed nothing. Grasping the inactive emitter bar, she swung her leg over, shifted her weight and dropped down onto the ground on the other side.

As she readied her phaser and began visually scanning the immediate area, Traie jumped down next to her. When she was satisfied that no one had seen them climb the fence, they flattened their backs against the side of one of the outbuildings and began making their way forward.

Without looking back, she could feel him behind her, watching their backs, moving in tandem with her each time she crept forward closer to the open space between the outbuildings and the house. His elbow rested gently against hers so he could feel her movements without looking away. Finally at the end of their cover, she checked each direction, crouched low and darted across to the shadows at the rear of the house, pressing her back tight against the wall.

No sign that anyone saw her, so Traie made the dash next and settled next to her in the shadows. After another moment watching their surroundings, she slunk closer to the first window and peeked in. It was a sitting room, and inside was one of the girls from Vatha’s photo, seated stiffly on a couch, hands clinging together in her lap, but she appeared to be alone.

Kee ducked low to pass under the window without being seen and stopped at a door. “If she’s alone in that room, the door must be alarmed.” She said softly to Traie when he joined her.

While she watched their surroundings, she heard him detach the cover of the lock and begin working the controls on the inside. She stole a glance back at him. Both hands were inside the mechanism, he gazed into the distance, focused on working the controls by touch and he bit his lip in concentration.

Damn, he was handsome! Medium-brown eyes, sharply angled jaw, and those lips… She had to tear herself away from the sight to focus on the mission.

With the faintest sound, the alarm powered down. “Alarm’s down.” He said under his breath, already working on the lock next.

Just having the alarm neutralized decreased her anxiety noticeably like just a little bit of weight had been taken off. They could handle a basic lock, they could handle a few Cardassians… probably… even a hasty getaway with the enemy on their heels they’d done plenty of times, but the alarm was something that would have ended the mission before they could even get that far.

A soft click and the lock was disengaged. Kee twisted the old-style knob and kneed the door open a crack, nosing her phaser through first. As she saw that the room was devoid of Cardassians, she stepped the rest of the way in.

The girl, Ciga, startled when she saw her, so Kee quickly pointed her phaser away and pressed a finger to her lips. She seemed to understand and remained silent.

“How many?” Kee mouthed, outlining the Cardassian ‘spoon’ on her forehead.

She held up four fingers.

Kee motioned for her to stay where she was and quickly surveyed the room. With her back to the open outer door, there was a door to her left and one at the opposite side of the room. She decided on the one to her left in order to keep to the perimeter of the building for the moment.

She tried the knob slowly and found it unlocked, peeking through just a crack at first to find it occupied the same as the first: no Cardassians, just one girl, Abesi. This one barely responded when Kee stepped into the room, followed closely by Traie. This second girl hugged her knees to her chest, staring blankly into the middle of the room. The room itself was the mirror image of the first room, with a door at the opposite side. 

It was only when Kee approached and touched her arm that she flinched and looked up at her, understanding dawning in her eyes. Kee directed her back the way they had come to wait with her friend in the other room and continued to the door on the far side of the room, guessing it would lead into a hallway. They still had to find Jurru and Tozea.

Muffled music that sounded like contemporary Cardassian drifted through from somewhere beyond.

The music increased in unison with her heartrate as she opened the third door without even a click of the latch. The dark hallway was empty when she peered left and right. The Cardassians seemed to believe they were safe here.

Traie joined her as she inspected the area. At the far end of the hall to her left was a partly closed door with bright light shining through. Diagonally from her, across the hall, was an open door leading to a dark room from which the music seemed to be coming. On her right the hallway turned to the left. From the size and shape of the house, she guessed there would be at least two more rooms down there.

Strategically, the open doors were more urgent since an enemy could come through at any moment, but in their present situation, the other rooms were of much greater concern. They’d have to split up to deal with both. With a quick decision that she was less than confident in, she motioned Traie to the right while she took the left and she felt him move silently away.

It only took a few steps to reach the open, dark doorway. As she moved past, she nearly jumped when she felt more than saw that someone was in the room. She froze in place to allow her eyes to adjust to the dim light and found that there was indeed a Cardassian in the room, seated in a chair facing away from her. At first, she thought he might be asleep, but then was able to detect the faint glow of a padd. He was reading.

She moved achingly slowly past the doorway, making sure to step close to the edges where the floor was less likely to squeak.

Closer now to the brightly lit room, she could hear voices, Cardassian voices. They weren’t hostile or angry as she usually heard them, they were calm, simply having a conversation. She peered through the bright crack in the door. From her limited view, it looked like an old-fashioned kitchen.

A dark form passed across her line of sight and she pulled back reflexively. He wasn’t coming toward her, just moving about the room. She listened to their inane drabble. One of them bragging about somehow gaining the favor of their superior, the other, commenting politely at appropriate breaks in the monologue. But it seemed to be only two. That would leave one somewhere in the back of the house for Traie to face.

She backed away carefully back toward the room with the lone Cardassian. From where he was, he could easily flank her if she made a move on the other two. She’d have to take him out without the others hearing.

Allowing her phaser to hang by her side from its strap, she slipped her knife out of her pocket. She held the knife in her left hand for the moment, leaving her right free to reach for her phaser if necessary. She stepped silently behind the Cardassian, still engrossed in his padd. Just before she was within striking distance, she transferred the knife to her right hand and slid it open, making the faintest click.

He heard it. And turned.

She lunged forward and wrapped her hand around his face, covering his mouth and pulling him back down into the chair. Her grip was tenuous, she had to move fast. She sunk the knife into his neck just in front of his scaly neck ridges.

The immediate spurt of blood told her she’d hit the artery, but she pressed harder until the tip sunk into something less yielding. His trachea, she noted coldly. The knife sliced through the organ, stopping the scream that was already forming. All that came out then was a wet choking noise that was easily covered up by the music that was still playing.

She continued to hold him down for a few more seconds while his blood spilled out and he stopped struggling, then let his body sag back into the chair.

With the sticky blood still on her hand, she tucked her knife away and pulled out her comm unit to silently signal Traie.

* * *

Traie kept his mind focused on the mission, not on the growing distance between himself and Kee. Splitting up was often the part at which things started going badly. But he understood her reasoning and agreed with the decision despite his reservations. She would take on the larger threat and he would handle the more crucial matter of finding the other two girls.

He pressed his ear up against the first door, not knowing how many, if any Cardassians were back here. What he wouldn’t give for a tricorder right now. They would have been able to scan the whole place from the outside, maybe even picked off the spoon heads through the windows before they even entered.

The room was silent except for some scuffling, enough to suggest someone was inside, but no voices or, thank the Prophets, other noises that would indicate a Cardassian was there. He gripped the doorknob carefully, turned it and edged inside.

Jurru stopped in the middle of pacing and whirled around with a fierce expression on her face. He almost stumbled back into the hallway for fear that she might attack him.

Her expression softened when she saw he wasn’t there to harm her, but she pointed silently but emphatically toward the room next door.

With a glance around the room to be sure there was no one else there, he motioned for her to stay there and began backing back into the hallway. For a moment, she tensed as though she would insist on coming with him. In fact, if it had been Kee, he knew she would. But instead she wrapped her arms around her body and parked herself in the center of the room.

Again, he pressed his ear to the next door and detected a girl’s voice. He couldn’t make out what she was saying, but she was talking, at least, not screaming or crying.

Not talking, shouting.

_“… your hands off of me!”_

It was all he could make out, followed by some curses that would make even Prortu blush. He had to move. Now.

As he backed away from the door, he saw that Kee had signaled him on the comm that she was in position. He jabbed the response code into the device and braced himself to kick in the door.

He had to do it with one kick or the Cardassian would be ready for him. He planted one foot firmly on the floor and raised the other one to slam forward against the door with all the strength he could gather. The wood held for a moment, then, weakened by age, the door jam split and the door swung inward and slammed against the wall behind it.

Hastily, he took in the room, the girl and the Cardassian.

The Cardassian had a vice grip on her arm as she was struggling to free herself. Both were stunned for a split second, but then the Cardassian reached for the weapon at his belt with his free hand.

In the time it took for the Cardassian to move his hand the short distance to his belt, somewhere behind Traie, he vaguely perceived phaser fire.

Kee had made her move, too.

Traie raised his weapon.

Tozea jerked hard against her attacker’s grip.

The Cardassian missed the handle of his phaser.

Traie fired.

His phaser beam lanced through the Cardassian’s armor into his chest and he stumbled backward, pulling her with him. But he was dead by the time he hit the floor and the girl scrambled away from him.

“Come on!” he beckoned her, hurrying her out of the room to retrieve Jurru and head back.

* * *

Kee prayed neither of the Cardassians would decide to come out of the kitchen before Traie was in position, and, to her relief, he soon signaled that he was ready.

Barely a moment later, she heard a loud bang from his location and she went into action. She slammed her shoulder against the door to swing it wide open and locate her two targets. One was just lowering his feet from where they had been propped up on a table, the other stood across the room, already reaching for his phaser.

She took aim and dispatched that one first. As she swung around to target the one at the table, he already had his phaser up and pointed at her. She dropped to a squat behind a sideboard just as the beam from his weapon singed the air where she had just been.

She tried to edge around to take a shot at him, but weapons fire burned away the corner of the cupboard and she drew back.

He could sit there behind cover while he called for backup. She couldn’t wait for that. She gathered her legs under her and threw herself into the middle of the room, already firing where she expected him to be, sweeping that entire corner of the room.

Her beam sliced across his legs, but he managed to track her with his weapon even as he fell.

She rolled onto her back to narrowly avoid the lethal beam and lifted her phaser with one hand just high enough to fire at him. She had aimed at his chest, but as he continued his fall, she caught him in the throat, the beam easily drilled through, leaving nothing to attach his head to his body but burned flesh.

She bolted to her feet and out into the hallway without giving the dead bodies a second thought, and found Traie there, thankfully with Jurru and Tozea. He was already leading them back the way they had come and Kee took up the rear, ready, just in case there were more Cardassians here than they realized.

They moved quickly, knowing that more soldiers could be on their way if someone from the outside had seen the flash of their phasers.

Once they’d retrieved the other two girls, Traie stepped outside, made a hasty check for incoming and hurried toward their entry point.

Just about the moment Kee’s foot touched the step on the outside of the door, lights along the fence lit up, washing the area in near daylight, and an alarm blared loudly. They’d been spotted. The flash of phaser fire through the windows must had drawn attention.

“Go!” She shouted at their small group.

Up ahead, she could see Traie signaling Vatha to cut through the fence. Just before he reached it, he stopped to allow the girls to slip through first as he fired beyond Kee’s back.

Kee skidded to a halt, just barely passing through the fresh opening in the fence, and leaned back in to cover Traie as he ducked through.

Bracketing Vatha and the girls, Kee and Traie guided them quickly into the forest while the Cardassians ripped open the hole in the fence to fit through and follow.

Some distance into the forest, they found a protected thicket of trees and bushes and bade the civilians to conceal themselves there. Kee pulled the scattering device off of her belt and handed it to Vatha. With so many bio signs grouped together, its protection would be minimal, but it was something. At this point, the Cardassians would be much more interested in Kee and Traie than reacquiring them.

The two rebels scuttled away through the trees. Once they were far enough away, they spotted one of their pursuers and opened fire.

Two shots each that didn’t land home, but they’d gotten their attention. They darted silently away in a different direction, still farther away from the Vatha and the girls.

Again, they drew the Cardassians’ attention by opening fire and slipping away into the darkness. This time, they doubled back around to locate those they were there to protect. As they approached, Kee could feel the skin on her neck bristle along with the sound of the slightest brush of a branch across a body. She dropped down into a thick _pucol_ bush and watched for the surprisingly silent Cardassian to slink by.

From her position, she could see that he was heading straight for Vatha and the girls. Kee hand-signaled Traie that she needed a knife. The utility knife she had wasn’t ideal for her needs and she had given her switchblade to Vatha.

Traie understood and handed her a dagger. She took it, turned it over in her hand so that she was holding it by the blade. Her accuracy wasn’t as good as it would have been with a phaser, but she didn’t dare draw the attention of the other searchers back to their position. So, she lined up the dagger with her target, drew her arm back and threw it at the back of the Cardassian’s neck.

As she threw, her feet shifted and snapped a twig.

The Cardassian turned as the blade tumbled through the air toward him. Her aim had been slightly off. What would have struck a potentially non-lethal blow to the back of his thick skull instead sank through the thin bone just at the inner edge of his eye socket.

Kee waited and listened a few more moments, but couldn’t detect any movement from the Cardassian or any other, so she hurried back to Vatha and the girls with Traie watching her back.

For a moment, she thought they weren’t there, but then saw that they had tucked themselves far back into the leafy cover. That was fortunate, from where they were, the girls probably hadn’t seen that Cardassian’s grisly death.

Vatha came cautiously out first, holding her knife with a white-knuckled grip. “We heard one coming this way.” He whispered.

“It’s okay. But we need to get out of here before they find his body.” She said, ushering the girls out and away from the search parties.

* * *

At her first opportunity, once they were far enough away from the searchers, Kee bent down at a creek to wash the blood off of her hand. Cardassian blood had a _smell_ to it that always made her gag. Then as it had dried, it pulled her skin tight like a coating of glue.

Vatha looked like he was about to collapse from exhaustion, but he conducted himself admirably throughout the whole operation, especially considering that none of the girls appeared to be his. The girls themselves appeared to be unharmed, at least physically. Though, the hike back to the village had been hard, they weren’t dressed for the night chill and their shoes were certainly not meant for walking. But they held themselves together knowing they were going home.

Vatha recognized the creek where she stopped and had them follow it most of the way back to their village.

It had to be into the early hours of the morning by the time they reached the destination but lights were on there and there was a crowd waiting for them. Several adults stepped forward when they saw the group and the girls ran to their parents or guardians. Kee and Traie stood back from the reunions, watching only long enough to make sure all was well. She allowed her fingertips to brush against his affectionately for a moment, then they turned to leave.

“Wait!” Someone called after them. The pair turned back to see a middle-aged man running toward them. “I’m Alkin. One of the girls is my daughter.” He stopped in front of them, “I can’t tell you how grateful we are for what you’ve done for us.”

Kee waved off the praise, “It’s what we’re here for.”

“Please allow us to show our thanks by providing you a hot meal. I can’t imagine that’s something you get to have very often.”

Kee didn’t want to take from what must have been meager supplies, “That’s not necessary.” She said and they made a move again to leave.

“Please.” He pleaded. “Allow us to share a meal with you.”

Kee looked at Traie who seemed reluctant, too, but it was clear Alkin was not going to just let them leave. “Ok. A meal would actually be really nice.” They followed him back into the village.

* * *

Not even half an hour later plates of bread and roasted vegetables were placed in front of Kee and Traie as they sat with the residents of the village at a long community table. She breathed in the smell of the food. It had been a very long time since she’d smelled anything this good. Once others had joined them with their plates, Kee picked up a fork and began eating, savoring every bite. She glanced over at Traie and couldn’t help but smile at him. He seemed to be enjoying it as much as she was.

Family members and friends of the girls kept coming up to them to express their appreciation for what they did. It seemed strange to receive so much praise, but she genuinely appreciated their gratitude.

When the meal was finished, Kee stood up to leave and another man who’d introduced himself earlier as Alerra’s brother, Mervik, came up to her. “It’s late, you shouldn’t have to travel in the middle of the night.”

Sensing what he was about to offer, Kee shook her head, “Don’t worry about us. We live out there.” Although, traveling at night wasn’t her favorite thing to do. There were wild animals that wouldn’t come near a group of people but were known to attack individuals or pairs.

“Please, stay at my house. We have a room.”

The offer was tempting. She could count the number of times in her life she’d slept in a bed… and a bunk in a holding cell didn’t count. In the end, her kneejerk reaction to always decline was overridden by her fatigue. A trek back to their rendezvous point right now was unappealing at best. Besides, they weren’t expected to be there for another day and a half. She finally smiled at the man, “Ok.”

“Wonderful! Come with me.”

* * *

“It’s not much…” Mervik said humbly, leading them into a room with only a bed and a small table in it.

“It’s perfect, thank you.” Traie said kindly, already slipping his pack off and setting it down with his weapon propped against the wall.

Their host left them and, for the first time in hours, she and Traie could relax. He sat down on the bed and took her hands in his. “When’s the last time we had this kind of privacy?”

Kee felt herself smile wide, it had been a while. She moved close to him and straddled his lap, making sure to give him a nice view of her cleavage as she sat on his legs.

“Whatever shall we do?” Then she leaned forward and kissed him teasingly soft. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her body close to his. Then he released his lips from hers and kissed her jaw and nuzzled her neck unfastening the clasps on her shirt as he went. She slid her hands up his muscular arms and slowly pushed him down onto the bed.

They continued methodically undressing each other, enjoying each step of the process. She looked down at him with her hair falling down around his face, wishing this moment could last forever.

* * *

For the first time ever, they’d had the time to enjoy an unhurried encounter together. Kee snuggled against his bare chest, closed her eyes and was soon asleep. The next thing she knew she woke up to light streaming in the window.

She faced the edge of the small bed and felt Traie’s body pressed all along hers like they were a pair of spoons in a drawer. He reached over to kiss the back of her neck and pulled her tight against him. She sighed, completely content. She thought about what it would be like to have a normal life together. To wake next to him like this every morning. To just live their lives without having to scheme and plan and fight and kill. Just live.

“I wish we could live like this.” He said softly in her ear, his thoughts following hers.

“It would be nice.” She allowed herself to indulge in the fantasy for a moment. “But you know we can’t.” She turned over to face him. “We couldn’t live like this while our friends are out there fighting and dying.”

A heaviness crossed his face, “I know.” He pressed his forehead against hers. “Someday, when the Cardassians are gone, we’ll have this.” He didn’t include the part that was always on their minds: if they survived.

She leaned forward to kiss him, “Agreed.”

Reluctantly they dressed and gathered up their gear. When their hosts saw that they were going to leave they insisted on wrapping up some food for them to take with them. Side by side they started back into the forest to rejoin their colleagues.


	9. ... than never to have loved at all

_Panora System, Cardassian Territory: 9369 (2367, Earth Calendar) ___

____

“Progeny of a suck pile inbred _tog_ sack…” Kee mumbled as she kept her head well below the brush.

“… in a cock storm wagon bender, bait sucking maggot sniffer…” Traie continued.

“… with a crap blended cock thistle,” she added.

“… overrated jizz nugget.” He finished.

They were pinned down, surrounded. They’d lost the element of surprise and they’d only gotten half of the laborers out of the camp.

Besides all of that, they were out here on a moon in Cardassian space, alone with no chance of backup. Her first off-world mission was coming out a disaster and an absolute failure any minute now.

Neither Ren’s cell nor Prortu’s normally operated off-world, leaving that to the cells that had better access to ships, but one of their own had a brother imprisoned in the small labor camp here. Or, he _was_. He had been killed more than two weeks before they arrived. They’d tried to do what they could for the remaining laborers here.

So much for that plan.

She stole a glance at Traie, he didn’t look any more optimistic than she felt. Then at the ten weary, frail laborers huddled in a tight group. They weren’t well hidden. The underbrush wasn’t nearly as lush as she was used to back home. Any Cardassian who came near would surely spot them.

She had to do something to draw them away.

“Stay with them. I’ll pull the Cardassians away.” She said. If he could get them to a relatively safe place, they could _think_ about going back in for the others.

He caught her hand before she began to move away and gave it a wordless squeeze with worry written on his face.

She squeezed back and gave what she hoped was a reassuring smile, then slipped away between the trees.

The tarrozite mining operation was small, only twenty-two laborers and nineteen Cardassians, according to their intel. Of the nineteen, two were techs, the rest were soldiers.

Kee ducked behind a tree for a moment while one of the searchers stalked by. She didn’t want them to spot her until she was far enough away from the others or they might be able to backtrack to them.

As soon as the Cardassian was out of sight, she started off again. If they could get the Cardassians off their tail and find a place to leave the first group of laborers, going back in after the others was still a long shot. The facility would be on high alert now, expecting the rebels to return. Every Cardassian that wasn’t out here looking for them would be in place to protect the quarry or at the landing pad guarding the transport.

If they could manage to get in and back out, which was a whole problem of its own, they still had to get the laborers from there to the landing pad, hijack the transport and get back out of the system safely. Just to make it a bit more fun, the process of mining tarrozite caused ardeonic interference in the surrounding subspace and the landing pad had to be more than five kellipates away from the mine in order for their thrusters to work properly. Which was where they ran into trouble already, during the trip between the two locations they were completely vulnerable.

When she felt like she was far enough away, she pulled a device off of her belt and tapped the key to deactivate the scattering field that kept her hidden from their sensors. She tapped it back on, off and on a few times to make it seem like it had malfunctioned, being sure to leave it on at the end. Then she chose a direction generally away from the others and ran off, knowing the Cardassians would already be on their way.

She’d thought this would be a good plan, but was beginning to have her doubts as she imagined half a dozen Cardassians converging on her position. But then she thought of Traie and those with him being able to escape and decided it was their best chance.

She fritzed her scattering field again, leaving a trail for the Cardassians to follow, and kept running.

When she dared spare a moment to pull out her scanner, she detected three Cardassian comm signals closing in from behind and one up ahead. She changed direction to slip between them, but not too quickly so she didn’t lose them.

They were close enough now that she could see them, but she wove back and forth between the trees fast enough to keep them from getting a target on her. She only prayed that she had pulled enough of them far enough away from the others to let them get away.

* * *

Jeff coughed and gasped for fresh air as he and his companions spilled out of their shuttle. He took a moment to check to see that they were all in one piece. A crash landing one could walk away from… well… as the saying went…

“Where are we?” Mal said between coughs. For a moment, he thought she might have a bruise on her face, but it was just a smudge of soot.

Jeff took out his tricorder and worked the controls to scan the sky above them, fumbling with the settings a bit. A Starfleet unit would be helpful right now, but all they had was this two-generations-old Boslic one.

With the space around them scanned, the tricorder worked to identify their location. Their shuttle’s nav controls had gone offline just before the rest of the shuttle’s systems fried. They’d only barely managed to locate this M-class moon to land on or they’d have ended up drifting in space in a smoke-filled can.

“We’re on a moon orbiting the fifth planet in the Panora system.” He told them. That meant they were just inside Cardassian space. So much for a rescue. Not that they could have expected one anyway, this mission was most definitely off the books. “What happened?” He asked Sam.

“The cloaking device caused a feedback pulse that surged through the power system. Apparently Boslic and Aldean tech don’t work well together.” He said, defeated.

“Which is what you’ve been saying all along.”

“I’d have been happy to be wrong.”

The Boslic shuttle was a no-brainer, in theory, it would have allowed them to move about Cardassian space without anyone taking a second look at them. But to get past the border, they’d needed a cloak, and they didn’t exactly have a lot of options when it came to those. Not without breaking Federation law, at least.

“Did the cloak hold out as we came down?” He asked Mal as Sam covered his mouth with a scarf and ducked back into the shuttle.

“I think so. But we’d better put some distance between us and the shuttle just in case. You saw the encampment on the way down?”

“Yeah, I saw it.” In the moments they had, he couldn’t identify what it was, but being in Cardassian space, disguised as Bajorans, they couldn’t risk being spotted.

“Any chance it’s salvageable?” He called back into the shuttle’s open hatch.

“No way.” Sam said as he stepped back out of the smoke.

“Let’s get out of the area, then.”

* * *

Traie’s gaze followed Kee until she disappeared around a large bole of trees. Concern was etched on his face and, again, his mind wandered back to their last time in bed together. Simple. Life. Safe. Clearing his mind, he turned to look at the group of laborers who were looking at him expectantly. He steeled himself against the hope he saw on their faces. Didn’t they understand how the odds were stacked against them here? How outnumbered they were? But what else could he expect. He was their best hope.

He met the eyes of the lead laborer and nodded with a grim set to his jaw. No matter how bad the odds, he would do whatever he could to save them. They could hear shouts and stomping footsteps of approaching Cardassians. He brought his finger to his lips and silently walked past them through the brush at the edge of the clearing. The group crept along behind him. Traie kept expecting one of them to cry out or fall, giving them away to the enemy, but, surprisingly, they kept quiet and mirrored his movements.

About half an hour had passed and Traie thought he could sense their group being followed. He didn’t quite know what he was feeling, but his instincts were usually right.

He hurried the group along until he saw what he wanted. The landscape was flat for the most part, but up ahead was a sort of depression in the ground, falling away perhaps five feet. He quickly had each of the laborers drop over the edge and hide in the leaves of the overhanging branches. He joined them and turned around to peek back in the direction they had come.

Sure enough, not five minutes after they were hidden, a group of four Cardassians hurried down the path they had just been on. Traie heard a collective sigh from the group as they also realized how close they had come to being discovered. Each of the soldiers had a disruptor in their hands, ready to fire. He waited one more minute to be sure, then hopped back up into the clearing, holding his hand out to tell the rest of the group to stay hidden.

He walked up the path a hundred feet, then back the way they had come the same distance.

Silence.

Returning to the group, he bent down to motion to the laborers to come out. Just as he was crouching, he heard rustling behind him. Already kicking himself for failing and, at the same time, knowing he couldn’t have done anything else, he turned around quickly and flung himself to the side of the path, right when a lone Cardassian came into view. The soldier grunted and fumbled at his disruptor, getting off a shot into the bushes before Traie recovered and launched himself at him. The two of them fell to the mossy ground and rolled, struggling to get control of his weapon.

Traie was face to face with the soldier who was glaring hate at him. Even while he was fighting for his life with the man, he was already picturing the other four hearing the disruptor fire and running back to catch them all.

He would fail. Kee trusted him to keep them safe.

With renewed determination, he tightened his grip on the weapon and twisted it out of his hand. His palm went up into the soldier’s face, slowing him down for a moment. Traie lunged for the disruptor and rolled to the side, firing once at the Cardassian point-blank. The man stiffened and then went slack.

Breathing heavily, Traie turned towards the group hidden in the bushes, waving at them to join him. If the other Cardassian’s hadn’t heard the first shot, they definitely would have heard the second.

In a moment of indecision, Traie stood in the path and looked up and down, trying to decide which way to go. Towards them or away? Stick to the path for stealth or off the path and risk making noise.

Was Kee safe?

Any direction was better than sitting still. The four that had passed could be almost there already. He decided to go off of the trail and the group followed. Afterward, he would play this moment over and over in his head. What could he have done differently?

Only a little way along, he got that feeling again. But couldn’t tell from where. Where would the attack be coming from?

The first clue was a phaser blast that came out of the trees and sliced past him and struck one of the laborers in the stomach. In an instant, the man fell, still alive.

Traie dropped down next to him and the rest of the group scattered into the bushes. He got a shot off at one of the Cardassians, dropping him to the ground, but then he felt a flash of pain and the disruptor dropped from his burned hand. Lucky shot. The three remaining Cardassians circled him warily.

He raised his hands over his head. There was nothing to be had by sacrificing his life for nothing.

With two still holding their weapons on him, one stalked over to him. With the momentum of his movement, he swung his fist down at Traie’s face. He only just managed to turn in time for the blow to miss his nose, but his cheek bone exploded with pain from the strike and the force of it knocked him to the ground. His attacker followed immediately with a boot to the gut.

Through the pain, he felt himself turned onto his stomach with a boot pressed hard against this back while his hands were wrenched back and cuffed. With his face pressed in the dirt, he saw that the laborer who had been shot was already dead.

He hoped at least some of the laborers had escaped. But then he heard more rustling outside the clearing and another soldier broke through into the clearing clutching the tunic of one of the workers in his hand. The man was thrown to the ground next to Traie. The anguish on his bloody face made Traie want to jump up and attack the soldiers, no matter the odds. But there was no point in wasting his life for nothing.

As long as he was alive, he had a chance of escape. He knelt calmly, trying to ignore the growing pain in his hand as more of the workers were brought back to the clearing. He could only hope that Kee had made it.

* * *

There were no longer Cardassians on her tail and that worried her. If they weren’t behind her anymore, they might have gone back for Traie and the others. She began backtracking, watching for any sign of where they had gone, but found none.

It had been over an hour since she’d seen any Cardassians when she heard someone nearby. She checked her scanner, but there was nothing. Whoever they were, they had their biosigns masked and weren’t giving off any comm signal.

She silently crept closer until she could see three figures crouched together in the brush, two men and a woman. They looked relatively clean and well-fed, definitely not any of the laborers. They didn’t appear to have heard her so she watched them. They seemed to be having an intense but silent discussion.

This moon was supposed to be uninhabited except for the mining operation, so where did they come from?

They appeared to be Bajoran, but something seemed just a little bit off. Though, she couldn’t quite identify what. Then it dawned on her, their earrings displayed the symbols of their _d’jarras_ , which would indicate they were strict adherents to those ways. What jumped out at her was what their _d’jarras_ were. A politician, an undertaker and a member of the clergy. Those three would never be found associating with each other. How odd.

No matter how curious the mystery, though, they had nothing to do with her mission. She began to move away but as she stepped on the tree litter, she startled a bird that was hiding in the leaves. It flew away with a cackling squawk, drawing the attention of the three not-quite-Bajorans.

“Hey!” One of them shouted.

They’d seen her, but she already had her phaser pointed at them, so she went with it. “Don’t move.” They raised up their weaponless hands. “Who are you and what are you doing here?”  
One of them spoke, “I’m Laru Idura.” He said, then indicated the male and female with him. “This is Isku Shin and Jopir Foala.”

She didn’t believe that for a second. “Those aren’t your real names. Who are you really?”

“All I can tell you is that I’m Laru, that’s Isku and she’s Jopir.”

“Fine.” Still unconvinced. “Where did you come from? How did you get here?” Before he could lie to her again, she heard branches breaking and dry leaves being kicked around, the unmistakable sound of Cardassians moving through the forest. “Get down!” She hissed and waved them back where they’d been hidden.

They were near the rough roadway that was barely more than a pair of parallel footpaths. It sounded like it was a large group. She was sure she would have heard another ship landing if they had sent down reinforcements.

The first of the Cardassians came into view. It was the glinn that was in command of the facility with two soldiers flanking him. Then she saw who was behind them and her heart sank. It was Traie and the laborers walking two-by-two with their hands bound.

As they passed near Kee’s hiding place, she could see that Traie was favoring one side, he was bleeding from multiple places on his head and face with a number of bruises forming. It must have just happened within the last few minutes.

At the end of the convoy were two more Cardassian guards. What could she possibly do now, alone against so many Cardassians? She wanted to scream curse words as loud as she could, but instead she just mouthed them, making no sound.

Once it was safe to move out of their hiding position, she started walking away from the strangers, unsure where she was going or what she was going to do. She just had to get away.  
Laru, or whatever his name was, followed her. “I take it they’re supposed to be with you?”

She kept walking away, grasping at anything that would help her form a plan. “It has nothing to do with you. Just go back wherever you came from.”

He hurried up behind her and grabbed her arm. She hated that. She yanked it away from his grasp furiously but turned toward him anyway.

“Ok. You’re right, those aren’t our names, but I can’t tell you our real ones.”

“Why not? Are you on some undercover mission, hear to spy on us?” She said it sarcastically, but by the look on his face, she’d hit on exactly what their mission was. “You can’t be serious.”

He sighed, reluctant to tell her more. “We’re not actually Bajorans.”

She felt the corner of her mouth creep up, “Yeah, I figured that one out.”

“But we’re not here to ‘spy’ on you…” He looked at the others, deciding whether to keep going. “The Cardassian Union is like an iron curtain. Nobody knows what’s really going on beyond their borders. We’ve heard rumors about what’s happening on Bajor, but no one knows for sure. We’re here to bring back hard evidence of what’s going on. Evidence that will allow the Federation to put pressure on Cardassia to make changes.”

The earnestness in his face made her want to believe him. Or maybe it was just the kind of thing she wanted to hear. That they weren’t all alone in this. That somebody out there cared that her people were being systematically exterminated. Instead she laughed. “What could the Federation possibly do to change Cardassia’s methods on Bajor?”

“We have a peace treaty now.” He said warily.

She was speechless except for a sharply indignant noise. Of course the Federation would put their own peace ahead of the brutality happening on her home planet.

“I know.” He said sympathetically. “But it gives us some influence, at least.”

“So, you’re just so noble and courageous that you would smuggle yourselves into Cardassian territory, pose as Bajorans, risk your lives, just to try to help us?”

He held her gaze steadily, “Yeah.” He said as though the answer were obvious.

The look in his eyes took her back, whatever the reality was, he really did believe in what they were doing. A glance at the others told her they were similarly committed. She wasn’t sure what to say so she changed the subject, “Ok, so how did you end up on this moon?”

Jopir answered, “We used an old Boslic shuttle to slip past the border patrols. But we had some engine trouble and crash landed here.” She explained, “Our shuttle is a couple of kilometers that way.”

“We weren’t supposed to make contact with anyone.” Laru continued. “Just get in, take some holos and get out. But the shuttle’s a lost cause, we’re stranded here.”

She didn’t want to get involved, but felt like she should at least do something to help them on their fool’s errand. “There’s a landing pad…” she looked around for a moment to get her bearings then pointed toward the north. “That direction. You may have detected it on your way in. There are shuttles there... and Cardassians, but you might be able to hijack one.” Maybe they could even keep the Cardassians busy long enough for her to slip into the compound and get her people. She began to walk away, intending to never see those three people again.

Laru called after her, “What are you going to do?”

Kee turned briefly, “I have to get those people out of there.”

“Alone?”

“You have your mission, I have mine. Go observe and report, I’ll save lives.” She said with finality and pushed her way through the forest.

* * *

“Jeff, this isn’t right.” Malinda said as she and her two companions made their way north toward the landing pad. “I mean, leaving a teenage girl with a gun out here on a moon with a bunch of Cardassians? And did you see the other Bajorans? Most of them looked like they’re nearly worked to death. In that mining operation, no doubt. And the only one who looked somewhat healthy couldn’t be much older than the girl and it looked like he’d been beaten up.”

“It’s not our fight, Mal. Our mission is not to get involved.”

“So, we’re just gonna walk away?” She said, barely keeping her voice down.

“I’m pretty sure she understands more about this situation than we do.” He said, but with little enough certainty to tell her he was already on the verge of agreeing with her.

Even without the discontinuity between the girl’s age and apparent experience, leaving anyone alone here to face these Cardassians was just wrong. Forget their mission, this should be their mission now. She hated to just run off, but she knew he wasn’t going to budge.

The landing pad was right where the girl had said it would be. Just before the crash, they’d detected an ardeonic field surrounding the mine. If she remembered correctly, certain types of mining operations would produce such a field, as well as the fact that it can interfere with intra-atmospheric thrusters.

They crept closer to see that there was a large personnel transport parked at the far end and three long-range shuttles in a row next to it. But no Cardassians in sight.

“Where are they?” Sam whispered.

“I don’t know.” Jeff said, “I doubt they’d leave their ships unattended.” 

A lot of them could have been out searching for the girl, leaving a few behind, perhaps setting an ambush to catch her if she tried to steal one of the shuttles. Mal pivoted on the balls of her feet to search the woods behind them.

They hadn’t brought much in the way of weapons, but they did each have a phaser small enough to conceal in their clothes. Non-Starfleet tech, of course. She slipped hers out of its hiding place at her belt. She may not know the Cardassians well, but she knew when she was being tracked.

The question was, from where?

They’d stand a better chance away from the landing pad, where they’d have more room to maneuver, less chance to get pinned down. She caught Jeff’s eye as he, too, searched the area, and nodded her head toward the more open forest.

With an almost imperceptible nod, he pushed up from his knees and tugged on Sam’s sleeve for him to follow without taking his eyes off of their surroundings.

The smallest movement caught her eye and she spotted the nose of a phaser through the scruffy bushes. “Down!” She shouted as she knocked her companions to the ground only a fraction of a second before a phaser blast cut through the air.

She rolled to her stomach and fired back where the blast had come from, but their attacker had already moved. “Go!” She shouted at them, already scrambling to her feet.

Another phaser blast narrowly missed her from another direction, but Jeff was already returning fire. Either the first Cardassian had moved fast, or there were two of them out here. Maybe more. She practically shoved Sam in the direction she wanted him to go and they made a break for it, keeping their heads low and dodging between the trees.

Their pursuers kept up the heat, staying right on their tails. Just as she was beginning to worry that they didn’t know the terrain up ahead, it didn’t matter anymore. A third Cardassian came into view ahead of them, forcing them to stop.

He took a shot at Sam that landed at the center of his chest. Then the two chasing them caught up and nailed her and Jeff square in the back.

There was no pain, the weapons were set to stun, she realized as her face landed in the dirt. She was still conscious, they all were, when she numbly felt her hands pulled tight behind her back and secured with restraints. Even though she could feel it, she couldn’t make her muscles move. All she could do was wait for whatever they were going to do to them.

* * *

The stun effect had been light and wore off in only a few minutes. Probably because their captors didn’t care to carry them back to their base and were now marching them back in the direction they’d come. Mal first, Jeff and Sam right behind.

It wouldn’t take any more than a basic scan to tell they weren’t really Bajorans. If all had gone according to plan, they would have decloaked somewhere inconspicuous and made a lazy rout that passed by Bajor. They’d beam down to the planet, the shuttle’s auto-pilot would stash itself somewhere nearby, they’d take a few holos and recall the shuttle. They would have been on the planet a short enough time that they wouldn’t be under too much scrutiny.

So much for that plan.

Even just a glance at his neighbor had resulted in a hard jab in the ribs by a phaser, so any chance at communicating an attack plan between them was out of the question. For now, their captors seemed more interested in holding them alive, at least, so there was always potential for escape. Especially when Mal was involved. In the three years they’d been partners, he’d seen her get out of spots so tight, anyone else would have had no chance.

Then, there was the girl. She had to be a member of the Resistance. Maybe fifteen years old, sixteen at the most. It was possible she was the only one out there still free. She had that same driven focus that Mal did, maybe she would be alright.

After winding through the forest, the Cardassian who had been leading the other group returned to meet them alone. One of the three who had captured them spoke to him, “Glinn, we found these three sneaking around the landing pad.”

A glinn, not a gul, he noted. Maybe this place was small enough that it didn’t warrant a top-level officer.

The glinn looked them over with a severe expression. “We’ll put them with the others. It looks like we have more of a rebel infestation here than we thought.” He moved to continue with them back the way he had come, smartly not turning his back on any of them. “Beta squad is tracking the girl now, they expect to have her in custody shortly.”

“Excellent news, sir.” The soldier told his superior. As they began to escort their prisoners along the road, Jeff could hear voices coming across a comm unit.

_“This is unit one, target sighted. She’s on the run. Unit three, she’s coming your way.”_

_“This is unit three, I see her.”_

Commotion, like phaser fire followed the voice.

_“This is unit one, Three is dead, I’m in pursuit.”_

More phaser fire, both over the comm and in the distance.

_“This is unit two, she’s headed in my direction. Keep on her, One.”_

A few seconds later there were sounds of a struggle, then, _“Down! On your knees!... This is unit two, I’ve got her, alive.”_

The glinn spoke into the comm unit on his wrist. “Meet us up ahead and we’ll add her to our collection.”

Mal managed to steal a glance back at him. He’d hear about it later for not helping her when they had the chance. If she even would have let them. She hadn’t seemed pleased to come across them, an unknown element, and was only too happy to leave them behind.

As night quickly began to fall, two Cardassians broke out of the woods dragging the girl with her hands bound behind her back. She had streaks of dirt and scratches across her jaw as though she’d been pinned down on the ground.

The glinn grabbed her upper arm and pulled her into line next to Mal. “It seems your little rescue plan has failed.” He sneered.

She refused to look at him, turning her face to the side and lifting her chin high with proudly squared shoulders.

He grabbed her jaw and forced her to face him, this time she held his gaze. “Such a pathetic little thing.” Then he let go of her and lead the group away.

* * *

In response to their raid, evidently, the Cardassians had erected a pen just outside the facility. A standard two-meter-tall fence now formed a small enclosure that was split into two spaces with a walkway at the top around the perimeter for a pair of Cardassians to watch the prisoners from above. Traie and the laborers were on one side, the other sat waiting for Kee’s arrival along with the spies.

Frankly, she hadn’t been at all surprised to see the Humans had been captured. This wasn’t the clean, pampered life they led inside Federation territory, this was the cold, dirty, bloody reality of Cardassian rule. They’d wanted to get a taste of it and they were about to.

Her skin prickled down her neck and spine when the soldier next to her grabbed her arm and guided her toward the gate in the fence. She hated that, to be controlled that way. But at this point, she could only obey. She knew people who could fight with their hands bound behind their backs, but she wasn’t one of them.

The Cardassian holding her stopped her just before the open gate. The hard tip of a phaser pressed against her neck behind her ear as her cuffs were released and a thumbscanner was held out before her. Resisting the scan would do no good, so she pressed her thumb to the pad and was shoved inside.

The one good thing was that she could see Traie again. While the guards were busy scanning the others, she stepped over to the divider where he had his hands pressed against the fence. She dug her fingers through to interlace them with his and pressed her forehead against his.

Their plan hadn’t worked, there wasn’t much to say about that. All she could manage was, “You’re alive.”

“You too.” He said wearily. “Who are they?”

“Long story.” She said, rolling her eyes. They may prove useful or they could just get in the way.

“One of the guys over here,” he said more excitedly than before, “used to be a theoretical engineer before he was brought here. He says there may be a way to use the ardeonic field to knock out any electronic device within a certain radius.”

“How?” She said urgently.

“Silence!” One of the Cardassians above barked at them.

Kee and Traie immediately released their hands and backed away from each other. They knew what being commanded a second time would mean.

Ignoring the curious looks from her cellmates, she ambled to the opposite side and sat down, leaning her back against the fence. Traie did the same. A moment later he answered her question using concealed hand signals.

_EM pulse._

_Damped sinewave pulse._

_46.29 MHz._

She glanced casually up to see that the guards hadn’t noticed and signed back.

_Got it._

Fortunately, she had inadvertently brought what appeared to be a Starfleet engineer with her. As she had observed the Humans on the long walk back to the facility, she had guessed that Laru was their leader, Jopir was some sort of security or tactical officer and Isku was an engineer. She stood and walked over to the engineer, watching the guard on top of the fence-walk. “What would you need in order to create a damped sinewave pulse at 46.29 MHz?” She said softly.

He stood in silence for long moments. His eyes ticked back and forth, seeing some kind of invisible schematics, maybe, and finally said, “I’d need something capable of transmitting a signal. Like a beacon or a communicator.”

One of the guards had noticed her too close to another prisoner, so she simply walked away without a word.

Somehow, she would need to get one of the Cardassians to come close enough for her to pick the comm unit off of his wrist without anyone noticing. There was a chance that cursing and insulting one of them would provoke him into coming in, but she’d probably end up beaten up for the trouble.

Still, it was one of only a few ways she could get into such close physical contact. The other option wouldn’t work in this situation, they’d see right through any sexual suggestions. Kee sat down on the ground and leaned her back against the fence again to think through how to carry out her plan without getting herself shot.

The guards on the fence-walk watched Laru as he sat down near her, but he only sat in silence until they looked away. “You have a plan?”

“Working on it.” She said, barely moving her lips.

“Would you like to fill me in?”

“Not really, no.”

“If you want Isku’s help, I’ll need to know what you’re planning.”

She avoided turning to look directly at him or the guards would notice them talking. “Fine.” She sighed quietly. “I need him to trigger an EM pulse that will interact with the ardeonic field and disable the Cardassian’s phasers and forcefields.”

“And then?”

She looked sideways at him with raised eyebrows, “And then we see how good you and your people are at hand to hand combat.” She said slowly.

Kee couldn’t see his face, at least he didn’t object, but finally said, “And how do you plan to get your hands on something that would be capable of emitting an EM pulse?”

“I’m still working on that.” A possibility occurred to her. If she could coax one of the Humans into an argument, and a mock physical fight, the Cardassians might come in to break it up. On the other hand, they might just leave their prisoners to duke it out. It was worth a try, though, and better than intentionally getting beaten by a Cardassian.

Traie caught her eye again from the other side and signaled her.

_What do you call the balls on a Cardassian’s chin? A dick in his mouth._

She stifled a laugh as best she could, she needed to figure this out, no distractions. Laru looked like he was just about a match for her. If he wasn’t completely dense, he’d pick up on the performance quickly enough.

She stood up to begin to pick a fight with him, but a bright light suddenly lit up the whole area. The glinn walked out of the facility’s main door, carrying a padd. Not good. He walked over to the gate and spoke to Traie, who was already on his feet.

“Aacam Traie,” he began.

“No, no, no.” She whispered and stepped over to the divider, pressing her hands against the fence.

Her stomach twisted into a knot.

“It is my duty to inform you that your trial has been scheduled for tomorrow, 21 hours from now. You will be convicted by a Cardassian court on 19 counts of murder, 23 counts of suspected murder and 15 terrorist acts.”

The other prisoners shrunk away. Traie stood alone, blocking the bright light with his hand, and looked over at her.

His eyes, that she had so many times looked into, seemed to communicate many things to her in that moment. His love. His courage. And his absolute commitment to their cause, regardless of what he knew would come next.

The glinn continued, “Your sentence is to be carried out immediately. Do you have anything to say to the Cardassian people?” When he didn’t reply, two guards opened the gate and pulled him roughly out. 

Her fingers twisted the fence as though she could somehow tear it open to get to him. Her heart pounded harder than she could have imagined. This couldn’t be happening.

_No!_

She shook the fence, if she could just distract them, slow them down, surely she could do something to stop this. Instead, they continued to lead him away achingly slow, like a slow blade pressed relentlessly into her heart.

She followed along the fence and watched helplessly as they forced him to kneel on the ground, facing her. Through the gate, she followed him down, dropping hard on her knees.

Tears flowed into her eyes, blurring her vision and she blinked them away, keeping eye contact with him as long as possible.

He mouthed _I love you_ as one of the Cardassians pointed a phaser rifle at his chest.

It was all happening too fast. Too fast! A second later, he fired.

Traie’s body tensed then fell to the ground.

Kee felt herself scream, but could hear nothing, could see nothing but the flash of the phaser beam burned into her eyes.

Her rage finally found words, vile words. She hurled insults at them in a blind rage. If her words could have been a weapon, she would have slaughtered them all.

Their ancestry, their children, their parents. Anything to _hurt_ them.

Finally, something hit home and the glinn turned to her. She pressed further, insulting his virility, his spouse’s faithfulness.

That did it. He marched to the gate and she backed away, but she wasn’t done. Her body shook with fury. She no longer cared what happened to her. Even as he towered over her, toe to toe, in his own native language she told him that his children were deficient, half-Breen bastards with low social skills.

The words had barely left her mouth when the butt of his rifle slammed into her stomach.

She doubled over but barely felt the pain. Then he struck her across the side of her mouth with the same weapon, knocking her to her knees.

She tasted blood.

She was vaguely aware of Jopir rushing in to help her, but she was struck down by guards that had followed him in.

A moment later she felt a hand close around her throat. He lifted her up off of the ground, holding her with one hand and squeezing to cut off her air supply.

She wrapped her hands around his arm to relieve the pressure pulsing through her temples, a tiny part of her mind remembering to place one hand on top of the comm unit on his wrist.

He brought her close enough to his face that she could feel the moisture of his breath, “Was there something you wanted to say to me?”

Kee couldn’t speak but she managed to move her head slightly to each side.

“Good.” He said and threw her down onto the ground.

She forced her lungs to fill with air because they didn’t on their own.

On her hands and knees, she coughed and gasped through her ravaged throat. She tried to feel the pain, anything to hang on to, but couldn’t. Everything was numb. It was real, but her mind wouldn’t accept it.

She sobbed there on her hands and knees wanting to sink into the ground and make it end. Her heart felt hollow like it had been ripped from her chest.

She squeezed her eyes shut and covered her ears as they dragged his body away to be disposed of. That sound would haunt her nightmares for the rest of her life.

Soon they would come for her, too, and at that moment she wanted nothing more than to just let them kill her. She could never be whole again. She could hardly breathe. When she opened her eyes, she saw her tears leaving wet circles in the dirt along with drops of blood that continued to trail down her lip.

Her hands shook with pain and rage, but they somehow still held the glinn’s comm unit.

As she slowly became aware of the world around her, she remembered the laborers. They were counting on her. They would certainly die without her. Every one of them, and many more who would be brought in to replace them. She was their only hope now.

Kee swallowed hard and fought to calm her breathing. She wrapped up her grief and pushed it into a pit in her mind. A dark, black, horrifying pit where she put all of her pain.

Finally, pulling a mask over her feelings, she pushed herself off of the ground, hollow and empty.

Working to pull herself together, she straightened up and walked over to the engineer.

She covertly passed the comm unit into his hand and continued over to the stretch of fence farthest away from… _there_. Pressing her forehead against the fence, she laced her fingers through the openings and continued pushing the anguish away so she could complete her mission. It was the only way.

Laru approached her cautiously. She had felt his eyes on her up until that point. “I’m so sorry.” He said as though he could think of nothing anything else to say.

Kee didn’t trust herself to speak for several minutes, when she finally did, she said simply, “We both knew the risks.”

“That doesn’t make it easier.”

No, it didn’t, but she couldn’t say anything else, couldn’t grieve for him, not yet, she had to concentrate on the mission. Only one thing mattered now and for the rest of her life: the mission.  
“Does your engineer know how long it will take him to make the modifications?”

“Not long. But he says that he’ll need a piece of insulating material. Like a small piece of this fencing. About the size of a fingertip.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” She pushed herself away from the fence and moved over to the span shared with the other section to ask if anyone there could manage to obtain the requested item.

* * *

Jeff watched the girl as she subtly communicated with the prisoners on the other side of the fence. He still didn’t even know her name. The force of her pain made it clear that the boy was not just her partner, she must have loved him deeply.

Even more than that, the fact that she’d been able to pull herself back together so quickly, that it hadn’t broken her, told him that she was no stranger to loss and grief.

Not to mention accepting imprisonment and physical assault as though they were part of her every-day life. _Maybe they are._ The thought made him feel sick and even more determined to do what he could to end this for them.

By now, she showed almost no evidence of what had occurred other than a bloodied lip, her emotions packed down tight. Regardless of the boy’s alleged crimes, the injustice angered him. He knew the Cardassians believed the accused was guilty until proven innocent. Even so, that an execution would be carried out before the trial was unthinkable.

With their thumbs scanned, it wouldn’t take long for the Cardassians to realize that he and the others were not Bajoran, he guessed they would either be held as prisoners of war or executed outright. Either way, despite her loss, she had kept the presence of mind to grab the communicator off of the Cardassian soldier’s uniform without anyone realizing it. For providing a means of escape, they owed her.

Some movement behind her in the other section caught his eye. One of the other Bajorans passed something to her through the fence. Jeff glanced up at the guards walking around the top of the fence, neither of them had seen it. But his hope crashed down as a familiar scenario began taking shape.

A bright light shined on her from overhead, and the lead Cardassian came back out, carrying a padd. Kee turned away and placed the object in her mouth to hide it.

The Cardassian began just as he had before, “Norvish Keedra. Your trial has been scheduled for tomorrow, 22 hours from now. You will be convicted by a Cardassian court on 21 counts of murder, 28 counts of suspected murder and 16 terrorist acts. Your sentence is to be carried out immediately. Do you have anything to say to the Cardassian people?”

When she said nothing, two soldiers entered and approached her. Before they could lay their hands on her she stepped up to Jeff and pulled him close for a kiss.

After a stunned split second, he tried to pull back but she held him firmly, fingers digging into the base of his neck.

Unphased by his struggle, she opened her mouth and slipped a thin, hard piece of rubber past his lips and pulled back, peering into his eyes to be sure he understood what she’d done. Then the Cardassians pulled her away.

As they led her out of the cell he turned away and pulled the piece of fence material out of his mouth, handing it to Sam and shrugged.

“How fast can you get that thing finished up?” He whispered.

“One sec.”

Just as before, they forced her to her knees.

“We’re out of time, Sam!”

A Cardassian moved in front of her and pointed his phaser at her chest.

“Got it!” Sam said, activating the device.

There was no sound, no burst of light, no indication that anything had happened except that the lights winked off and the executioner’s phaser failed to fire. 

With almost no light he heard, rather than saw her suddenly move into action.

The Cardassians standing on the fence jumped down into the enclosure. Mal and Sam took them on while Jeff rushed to the unlocked gate to help the girl, but another Cardassian rushed in to meet him.

Now that it was one-on-one, he might actually stand a chance. Or so he thought, until the Cardassian threw him against the fence like he weighed nothing, then he shoved his weapon sideways against Jeff’s throat, pinning him against the fence.

Already seeing stars, he groped for a handhold, but couldn’t find any leverage to lessen the pressure. Finally, he found the Cardassian’s face and shoved back, throwing off his hold enough that he was able to knock the weapon away.

Jeff struck out with a quick left and right punch, landing both square on his jaw. He dodged a swing and suddenly Mal took over with a knee to his gut.

Leaving her to do what she did best, he rushed out the gate. By his count, the girl was up against three of them barehanded.

But as his eyes adjusted to the dim light from a neighboring moon, he saw only one figure still standing with three Cardassians lying either dead or unconscious at her feet, a bloody knife in her hand.

She motioned the other Bajorans over to her. “Check them, any that are alive, tie them up and wait for me.” Without further comment she turned and walked toward the facility as though she would march straight inside.

Jeff ran to catch up and grabbed her arm to stop her.

She spun around so fast, he thought she might attack him, but when she spoke, her voice was completely even, “Take your hand off of me.” She said through gritted teeth.

The fire behind her peridot-colored eyes forced him to let go but didn’t back down. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I _think_ I’m going in there to rescue the rest of my people.”

“You can’t do it alone!”

Her eyes narrowed, “Watch me.” She turned away but he went around and stepped in front of her.

“Wait.”

“Look. You and your people are free now. Take one of those shuttles and go.”

“We can’t let you go in there alone.”

“You can’t ‘let’ me? This is my job. This is what I do.”

“How many Cardassians are in there?”

“Ten.” She said without flinching.

“You can’t take on ten enemy soldiers by yourself!”

“I’ve had worse!” She continued before he could respond, “This isn’t your fight. Go to Bajor, take your pictures and if you make it back home you can go off and” she shook her head trying to find the words to use, “ _explore something_.”

“No. We’re in this with you now. You want to save those people? You’ll have a lot better chance of doing that with our help.”

She looked back at the compound, shifting her weight anxiously between her feet while she calculated her chances of success alone versus with help. It was the first uncertainty he’d seen in her. With the adrenaline surge wearing off, hopefully she’d see reason. “Fine. But this is my mission.”

“You’re in charge.” He agreed.

When Mal and Sam joined them, she quickly briefed them. “There are nineteen Cardassians stationed here. We’ve already taken care of six, the others tell me my partner took one down, that leaves only ten inside, two of which are probably techs. The last two would be stationed at the landing pad.” She said, sounding far more professional than her age would suggest. “We can expect a supply ship to land somewhere around five hours from now. We need to get these people to the transport ship and out of the system before then.”

“Any idea what the radius on that pulse was?” Jeff asked Sam, glancing at a control panel next to a pair of doors that was completely black.

“No clue, but…” He took a few steps to where he could see down the side of the building. “I see a control pad still functioning on the side of the building. The range of the pulse must be somewhere between here and there. We can assume most of the interior is functional.”

“What about weapons?” Mal asked as they made their way to doors.

“I memorized the layout of the building before we came here, I know where the weapons locker is located, but we’ll have to deal with the security system first, assuming it’s still functional.”

“They probably already know that there’s been some kind of malfunction out here.” Mal added.

“We need to get inside before one of the techs comes out to check.” She began trying to pull the doors apart.

“Your name’s Norvish?” Jeff asked as he began to work on the doors with her, he thought he’d heard one of the laborers call her something else.

“People call me Kee.” She said simply. That must have been what he’d heard, mentally linking the name to ‘Keedra’.

Between the four of them, they were able to pull the doors open enough to slip in.

* * *

Kee lead them down a short, dark corridor and into a side alcove to wait, pressing her back against the wall. She took out the knife she had taken from one of the soldiers outside, positioning it so that the blade stuck out the outside edge of her hand.

A few moments later she heard footsteps coming toward them. Between the long shadow that was cast from the lighted part of the corridor and the sound of his footsteps she gauged the Cardassian’s height and distance.

When he seemed to be just at the edge of the corner where she stood, she swung the knife up and out, sinking it deep into his neck. Then she pulled it across to cut through his trachea, preventing him from crying out. As he fell, she grabbed the edge of his armor and pulled him inside their hiding place, blood already pooling at her feet.

If the Prophets were keeping a list, here was one more for them to add, she thought sullenly.

This Cardassian only carried a hand phaser, she pulled it off of his belt and tossed it to Laru. “You wanted a weapon.” She shrugged, then led them a little farther down the corridor where she knew there would be an access panel in the ceiling.

Jopir lifted her up into the opening and left them to stand guard with the one phaser. From there she crawled across to the security office, cross connecting some key systems as she went in order to avoid tripping any alarms.

Once she had done so, she slipped down out of the ceiling into the secondary area of the security office.

The other tech sat at the desk with his back to her, running diagnostics on the front entrance system. She snuck up behind him, but sensing that there was someone there, he turned and stood up out of his chair.

She bent down and lunged at him below his center of gravity, knocking him to the floor. With a practiced movement she rolled back onto her feet.

As he lifted himself off of the floor, she slammed her knee into his gut in a weak spot just under his armor. He shuffled back but kept his footing. She spun around for momentum, driving her heel into the side of his face. He fell to the floor motionless, his head laying at an odd angle.

She retrieved the stumpy isolinear rod from her shoe and plugged it into the interface.

* * *

Mal waited with the others. They’d heard the situation on Bajor was bad, but she wouldn’t have imagined this bad. What kind of circumstances would lead to two teenagers being sent to rescue two dozen people? The only answer she could come up with was the same circumstances that had led to the lists of those teenagers’ crimes and the execution of one of them.

One thing was certain, though, this girl knew what she was doing. In another time and place, she’d make a great addition to her team. She had been expecting her to emerge from the access way she had lifted her into, so she’d nearly shot her when she hurried down the corridor. She waved for them to follow her and led them back to the security office where she sat down behind a desk.

“I’ve disabled the security feeds and remote distress beacon. You can grab some phasers in there.” She pointed to an open door behind her.

After retrieving a rifle from the weapon’s locker Mal leaned over Kee’s shoulder to look at the console. She appeared to have full access to the system. “How did you gain access so quickly?”

The corner of her mouth crept into a lopsided smile as she pointed to a small, colored cylinder sticking out of the console. “My secret weapon.” She indicated some alien characters on the display that Mal couldn’t read. “There are some areas we don’t have access to, but it’ll get us around most of the system.”

She tapped a few controls and brought up a diagram of the facility as the others gathered around behind her. The place was almost entirely one level, built around a huge pit which appeared to go down into the ground at least five times the height of the main building. The part of the building that was over the pit also extended upward two or three levels.

“The workers will be down here.”

“At this time of night?” Jeff asked.

She looked up at him, a mixture of anger and compassion on her face, “They work them twenty hours at a time, regardless of the time of day.” Turning back to the console, she moved the diagram around on the display in three dimensions to indicate eight yellow dots on two levels below ground but above the workers.

“These are the overseers, here. They’re well-armed and may start firing down at the workers at the first sign of trouble.” She pointed out the main level, “There are no access points on the ground level, only on the two guard levels and at the bottom of the pit.”

Mal pointed to a structure at the very top above the pit. “What are these?”

“Those look like maintenance walkways. Accessed via ladder on the ground level. But there’s no cover up there.”

“If three of us could get up there and create a crossfire, we may be able to take them all out before they even know what hit them.”

Kee thought about it for a few moments, “We’d be vulnerable but we’d have the element of surprise.” She agreed. “Hey, Engineer,” She said to Sam, “you’re capable of bypassing a basic locking mechanism, I assume?”

“I think I can handle it.” He said.

“Then you can head down to the workers’ level. Wait for our signal and get those people out.” She pointed to the weapons locker again, “Somewhere in there should be some comm units.” She told her as she closed down the diagram of the compound and began working on something else.

When Mal returned with four comm units, Sam was leaning over her shoulder, studying what she was doing. “Why are you accessing the power core?”

“I’m setting it to overload. If I leave the facility intact, they’ll just bring in another shipment of workers. This way if they want to continue mining here, they’ll at least have to start over.” She finished what she was doing, retrieved the rod with her computer program and stood up, “We have about 20 minutes to get this done, then it’ll blow. Let’s move.”

While Sam split off in a different direction to release the workers, the rest of them climbed the access ladder to the catwalks and took up positions equidistant around the perimeter of the pit. The grating they walked on threatened to make noise under their boots and massive ducts almost a meter in diameter came up from below the catwalks and joined together in the center before leading up to the roof. Those ducts would make targeting much more difficult.

When they were all in position, the girl’s hushed voice came over the comm, “How’s the lock coming?”

“Almost there.” Sam whispered, “It’s unlocked, I’m ready when you are.”

Kee raised her phaser rifle to her cheek, tracking the movements of the Cardassians within her site. Mal watched with fascination. She couldn’t detect a trace of apprehension or fear, only the cold focus of duty. With a slight movement of her arm she whispered into the comm unit again. “Now!”

Without having had a chance to use this weapon before, it took Mal a few shots to hit her first target. By then, the second had moved out of her range. She followed around the circumference, but still couldn’t make the shot.

Jeff was shooting at the levels below her and Kee had already dispatched her two targets and was tracking Mal’s second one. When she couldn’t manage to find a position either she climbed over the railing and onto one of the ducts, hurrying up the slight incline to where she had a line of sight to the Cardassian. When she was satisfied with her position, she crouched down on one knee and fired her phaser at him. He returned fire, but not at her, he hit the underside of the duct, destabilizing it.

Kee stood up and looked above her for a handhold. She looped the strap of her phaser across her shoulder and jumped as the duct began to give way below her, catching an overhead beam and using it to swing across to the next duct. As she landed, she turned over onto her stomach and fired back, finally hitting the Cardassian who seemed as astonished as Mal.

When Mal looked down into the pit, she saw that the workers had been evacuated as planned. She offered her hand to help Kee back over the railing, she rejected it, swinging her legs up and over easily.

“Nice shooting.” Mal said.

“Thanks.” She said, still breathing hard.

“Not afraid of heights, eh?”

She almost laughed, “Terrified.” She said, climbing down the stairs after Jeff.

When they got back down to the main level, Sam was already leading the workers outside. “Come on, we’ve only got about five more minutes to get out of the blast radius!”

Some of the laborers were barely able to walk, those who were more able-bodied helped them hobble away. How they could have been working in a mine in such a condition was baffling. Mal rushed up to an elderly woman who looked like she was about to topple and wrapped an arm around her waist to support her as they walked. Sam, Jeff and Kee did the same.

Their progress was achingly slow, and she wasn’t even sure how far was far enough. The woman she helped, though was surprisingly tenacious for how feeble she looked. She kept moving ahead at a slow but steady pace.

Almost exactly at the five-minute mark they were far enough away that the blast was only a rush of hot air carrying bits of ash that drew cries of distress from the laborers, but nothing more.

* * *

As they got closer to the landing pad, they slowed their pace. There were still two Cardassians here somewhere. They were stationed at the landing pad, but after hearing the blast and losing contact with their team, they may have hidden themselves. Or they could be stalking them already.

With a tender manner that contrasted starkly with the ruthlessness she showed the Cardassians, Kee helped and urged the laborers along while keeping a constant watch around them. Her eyes flicked from place to place in the near distance, her hand never left her phaser. He wouldn’t say she was comfortable, exactly, in the position, but she certainly knew what she was doing.

When they got close enough, Kee asked the laborers to stay hidden along with Jeff and Sam to keep watch over them while she and Mal tracked down the Cardassians. For now, he could only wait and hope her intel was accurate on the number of soldiers stationed here. Even just one more than expected could mean death for any of them.

Kee’s voice came quietly over the comm. _“Jopir, take the one on the left, I’ll take right.”_

 _“I have the target in my sight.”_ Mal responded.

Kee counted down from three and two phaser blasts lit up the air not far away. _“Got him.”_ She said.

_“Confirmed, mine is down.”_

_“Bring everyone to the transport.”_ Kee said.

By the time he, Sam and the laborers arrived at the transport, she had already begun the startup sequence while Mal was busy starting one of the smaller shuttles.

“So what are you going to do next?” Jeff asked Kee as she appeared in the doorway and began ushering the people in.

“There’s an m-class planet not far from here.” She said. “It’s in disputed space, but close enough to the Federation border that they should be safe there. They’ll be able to salvage enough from the transport vessel to make a home for themselves. At least for the time being.”

He wasn’t quite sure what it was, but he had this gut feeling that they shouldn’t split up just yet. “I’m sure you could program the autopilot to go to that planet so you wouldn’t have to take them there personally.” He suggested.

“Oh yeah? Why would I do that?” She said while helping an elderly woman climb the steps.

“You could come with us to Bajor. We could use a guide.”

Kee laughed. “Trust me. Just get to Bajor and you won’t need anybody to show you around. You’ll find plenty of what you’re looking for.”

He tried again, “You could come back with us to Federation space to present our evidence to the Federation Council personally.”

Kee shook her head. “What you’ll find will speak for itself.” With the last of the laborers inside, she stood at the door a moment longer. “I have to go home and keep fighting for my people.”

He sighed, giving up. “All right. I wish there was more we could do.”

“I appreciate what you’re trying to do.” A hint of a smile pulled at the corner of her bruised lip. “ _If_ you actually survive and make it back to present your findings to the Federation Council, and _if_ they decide to change their policy regarding the conflict on Bajor, and _if_ it actually makes a difference, you will have done a great thing for my people.”

That was a lot of ifs.

She started to turn away but hesitated. “Just make sure you go straight to Bajor, don’t go to Terok Nor. That place is a death trap.” With that she pressed the key to close the hatch.

“Will do.” He said to the closed door.


	10. A Ferengi, Some Weapons and a Bad Plan

_9369, Bajor (2367, Earth Calendar)_

Kee wedged a prybar into the space between the lid and the crate and leveraged it open while Ren worked out a deal with their supplier, Trok. Cadda scanned the area around and above them to be sure Trok hadn’t been followed and Naren watched over them with his weapon ready.

Ren towered over the Ferengi merchant. It didn’t seem to hinder his negotiating tactics at all, but Kee left that matter to them while she hefted the lid to inspect the shipment. She stopped cold when she looked inside. “Uh… Ren?”

He stepped closer to see what she’d found while she lifted a pristine Starfleet phaser rifle out of the box and handed it to him. The crate was full of identical weapons, packed in perfect rows. By the size of the crate, they were looking at a dozen of them, and probably a dozen more in the second crate.

“What are you trying to pull on us?” Ren demanded, turning back to Trok.

“Nothing.” He promised with perfect Ferengi diplomacy. “Top of the line, perfect working condition, fully charged. These are high quality weapons.”

“Do you know what Starfleet would do if they found us with these?”

Trok waved off his concern. “No need to worry, they’ve been recalibrated so that they won’t leave a Federation signature behind. It’s the only modification I made, these babies are the real deal.”

While they argued, Kee picked up another phaser and began looking it over. Ren was absolutely right, Starfleet was rigidly vigilant about their weapons. She could only guess at the kind of trouble that would come down on them if they found out they had these. 

They were nice weapons, though. Her fingers traced the smooth pollymetal to locate various access flaps and covers that opened smoothly with almost no effort. The inside mechanisms were as perfect and immaculate as the outside. Vastly different than anything she’d ever held.

She powered it up and it was ready instantly. _No load delay_ , she thought with a touch of exhilaration.

Trok took it as a cue. “Fully-autonomous recharge capability, adjustable beam geometry including bolt and expanding energy pulse.” He listed proudly. “Multiple-target acquisition, gyro-stabilized and an emission crystal efficiency of 86%.”

“Where did you get them?” Ren asked.

“My methods of acquisition are proprietary.” He stiffly.

“Are they hot?” He demanded.

“Absolutely not. They’re salvaged.”

A likely story. The Federation would never allow their weapons to be salvaged. Kee powered it back down and opened it up to show Ren the innerworkings. As impressive as it was, it wasn’t something that was going to work well for them.

Ren shook his head. “It’s not something that can be repaired in the field.”

She slid the power cell out of its place and held it up to him.

Ren continued without missing a step. “And that power cell isn’t compatible with anything else we have.”

“I’m offering them at a deep discount.” Trok said, the edge of panic at a failing deal beginning to creep into his voice. “To offset your concerns.”

“Meaning you haven’t been able to unload them on anyone else and you’re getting desperate.”

“A discount is a discount.”

“A discount doesn’t mean much if one of these breaks down in the middle of battle and someone dies because my people can’t fix it.”

“These don’t break down.” Trok changed his tactic, crossing his arms. “Besides, I don’t think you have much of a choice.”

Ren’s shoulders sagged almost imperceptibly. He was absolutely right, they didn’t have a choice. All four of them carried weapons, but most of them were only for show. The phaser that hung from Kee’s shoulder had a dead power cell. Ren’s had a fractured emission crystal. The targeting assembly in Cadda’s was fried. Naren was the only one with a working weapon and his power cell wasn’t holding much of a charge anymore. They were out of options.

Finally, Ren gave in and began working out the final details of the transaction with Trok while Kee set the Starfleet rifles back into the case and replaced the lid.

The moment the transaction was complete, Trok trudged off toward his beam-out location.

Cadda and Naren picked up opposite ends of one crate and started for their nearest base and Kee and Ren took the other.

“I hope we don’t regret this.” Ren muttered to her quietly enough that the others couldn’t hear.

* * *

“The Federation is a long way from here, they’ll never find out.” Cadda argued.

She’d tried to get Kee’s support, Ren couldn’t stand against both of them, but for once Kee wasn’t with her. Instead, she kept to the background, making herself busy by handing out the weapons in question.

“Do you really want to take that chance?” Ren said. “I wouldn’t mind if the Federation got involved, but not on the Cardassian’s side. And that’s exactly what could happen if they find out about these.” He lifted the rifle in his hand for emphasis. “Do you really want to run the risk of having the Federation out here tracking us down?”

Before she could argue back, Joial hurried up to them with a padd in his hand. “Trok’s been arrested.”

“Damnit!” Ren shouted and slammed his palm down on the top of the weapon crate.

“He’s going to squeal like a trapped rat.” Kee said. The moment the Cardassians threaten him, he’d tell them everything, including everything he knows about his latest transaction.

“He’s being transported to the Laierka detention center.” Joial added, reading from the pad.

Ren handed Kee the weapon in his hand. “Get everybody familiar with these.” He told her, then he reached out for Naren’s Klingon phaser, best to take the one he’s familiar with. “Joial and I will head down to Laierka and do some recon.”

Kee nodded and turned away to follow orders while the two men left them.

* * *

“Is this going to be a rescue mission or elimination?” Joial asked plainly while they were en route.

“I don’t know yet.” Ren answered honestly. Just going in and eliminating the problem would be quick and efficient. The prudent thing to do. There was no way Trok would be able to run guns in this sector anymore, he was useless to them. And even if he did manage to do so, they wouldn’t trade with him again after pawning off stolen Starfleet weapons on them.

A rescue mission would be much more difficult, why increase the risk to his people for one Ferengi? Although, he could put them in touch with another supplier if they rescued him. He was torn between what was sensible and what was right and he wasn’t even sure which was which.

At least he had a few hours still to puzzle it out.

In silence, they edged close to the location of the detention center. The place had been there for years, but they’d never dared to break in. He’d lost more than a few people to that place. Still, they’d never risked it.

The Cardassians had demolished an ancient monastery and converted the underground level into a detention center. The stone ruins of the monastery lay scattered, broken and charred around the clearing in a heart-wrenching monument to their devastated culture. Above the entrance to the basement was the one piece of the building that remained standing with no sign of Cardassians. If he didn’t know what the place was, he’d have thought nothing of it.

Joial busied himself on a padd, working on gaining access to the system while Ren cased the place. On closer inspection, pair of guards were tucked away at the entrance and evidence of security sensors dotted the area. He imagined dropping a few bombs down into the place and just smoking them out, but there had to be a second exit somewhere in the forest.

A map of the underground facility flashed onto Joial’s pad for an instant before it winked out followed by a heavy sigh from him.

“The security system keeps kicking me out.”

“Did you at least get a good enough look at the layout?”

“Yeah, I think I can sketch something out, but we won’t know anything about the internal security system.” He said, already checking his pockets for a pen and paper.

“That, and we still have to figure out how to get inside.” He did have a contact here in the town that may have some information that could help them with that. Making contact was always a risk, but it might be worth it.

In his mind, he reviewed the contact protocols for this acquaintance while Joial scribbled furiously on a pad while the layout was still fresh in his memory.

* * *

Kee skipped past most of the beam setting options. It was too much, one or two would be enough in most situations. Though, she liked the pulse setting, so she selected it and set the standard narrow beam as her secondary option. Then she checked the power output against the Cardassian weapons they were accustomed to and set it to a comparable level. There were higher outputs, but she didn’t want to waste the power cell if it wasn’t necessary.

Everything about the weapon told her that a lot of meticulous work had gone into developing it. Cardassian weapons were simple, straightforward and reliable. Klingon weapons were similarly simple to use and extremely rugged. Less reliable, but a hard smack on the power cell would fix most problems. They’d used weapons from a handful of other races, whatever Trok had been able to smuggle in at any given time. Some were overpowered, some underpowered with varying levels of reliability, but this Starfleet phaser was by far the most elegant.

Though overly complex, the interface was simple to use. With enough practice, she could become proficient enough to use all of the options on the fly. The power cell slid into place effortlessly with the faintest click. The casing was so smooth it almost felt like she was touching nothing at all and the hand grips were exactly the right balance between firm and flexible and perfectly angled for the humanoid form.

“I think she’s in love.” Ilwea said, nodding to Cadda who was in the middle of trailing her fingers almost luridly across the weapon.

A light chuckle rolled through the group, but Cadda held the weapon intimately close to her face. “Don’t listen to them, they’ll never understand our love.” She loudly whispered to it, drawing more laughter.

“I want to see target practice people.” Kee stifled a smile and reminded them. “Lowest possible setting, we do not want to draw attention.”

At her order, they spread out in pairs. If they were all to practice-fire the weapons in the same location, the energy signature might be detectable by the Cardassians.

As the odd-man-out, Kee moved off on her own. She picked a spot where she had a clear shot at a rock a little over a thousand meters away. She flipped open the small scope which clicked gently into place and located what Ren referred to as the _“pew pew/no pew”_ switch, then fired at the rock.

The low-powered blast barely scorched the rock, but the mark became her bullseye. On the next shot, she manually targeted it and was only off by a few centimeters. _Not bad._ She thought to herself. There was little to no drift, and it appeared to be auto-stabilized. With the next shot, she tried out the computer assisted targeting, which placed her shot precisely on the first mark she’d made.

She smiled, if it wasn’t for the danger of Starfleet finding out about these, she would have loved to use them exclusively.

* * *

Ren walked through the outdoor marketplace, keeping his face down and away from surveillance units. There didn’t appear to be any Cardassians there that day, but if one of the cameras captured his face, they would be there in minutes. At least it was busy enough that he could hide in the crowd.

He stopped at a shop that sold outerwear and fingered through the scarves. He selected one that the proprietor would be able to see, tied it in a knot and left it to hang, walking away to an empty bench nearby.

As an excuse to keep his head down, he studied the layout Joial had drawn. He’d left Joial back in the forest to keep watch incase Ren miscalculated his chances of making it in and out of the town safely.

The map showed a circular area that must have been a staircase he presumed joined up with the above-ground entrance. On one side, there was a large room that was divided into sections. Next to that room, in the center of the map, he’d drawn two rows of identical rooms on either side of a hallway. Then to the other side, was a network of rooms and hallways that met up with either end of the previous hallway. Nowhere was there any indication of a secondary exit, but there had to be one. He guessed the Cardassians would use the identical rooms in the center as holding cells and the others as barracks and offices. The large room could be for interrogations.

The Cardassians would not have left a place with only one way out. If they could locate the back exit, that could be their way in and out, but it also could be a way out for the Cardassians who could, then, call for backup. That was one big variable they’d have to deal with.

Then, there were the holding cells. Chances were that there would be other prisoners in them. They weren’t responsible for them, but whoever they were, they didn’t deserve to be left behind. Variable number two.

Before he could ponder variable number three, someone dropped into the seat next to him, and Ren smoothly folded the paper back into his hand.

“The Cardassians usually make a pass through here twice a day. You’ll want to be gone within the next hour or so.” His contact, Az’ec, said.

“I’m not staying long.” He said in a low voice. “I need information about the detention center.”

He could feel Az’ek’s head turn toward him briefly before returning to a neutral position. “You’re not planning to go into that place, are you?”

“We have to.” He leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees, still keeping his head low. “I need to know if there’s a way in.”

“The only Bajorans who go in are prisoners or the cleanup crew.”

Cleanup crew. That sent a chill down his spine. Those people would be made to clean cells, clean up after interrogations and executions. He didn’t even want to think of the things they had to do.

“Could I get one of my people onto that crew?” Ren asked.

Az’ek hesitated, but nodded. “They show up about sunset and grab anyone still in the marketplace. If your man looks fit enough, he’s sure to be one of them.”

“I’ll be in touch soon.” Ren said and slipped away into the crowd.

* * *

“… one of us will slip in, plant a virus on their computers so Joial can control the system remotely and find the secondary exit. From there we just need to get in, find Trok and get back out.” Ren filled Kee in on the plan privately before bringing it to the others.

The whole thing set her on edge. They were going in with unfamiliar, though sweet, weapons. Their intel was less than sketchy, based off of the flash of a layout on a screen. Whoever they send in would have to be unarmed and alone. And there was no way to know for sure if Joial would be able to take control of the system even with a virus.

“This is a bad plan.” She told him plainly.

He took a slow breath, “It’s all we’ve got. We cannot allow Trok to be questioned.” He said, ending the discussion and walking toward where the others were waiting.

“Listen up.” He got their attention. “We have a way to get someone inside the detention center. All that person needs to do is plant a virus so that Joial can hack their system. Everyone else will wait outside until he locates the secondary entrance. At that point, we move in, grab Trok and get back out.”

“Who’s going in?” Gam asked.

“I will.” Ren said.

Kee jumped in, then. “No, you won’t.”

All eyes turned to her, including Ren’s. The stern expression on his face informed her instantly that he didn’t appreciate being defied in front of everybody, but she didn’t back down.

“Facial recognition would pick you up immediately and the whole mission would be blown. The same goes for me, Joial, Cadda…” She ticked them off on her fingers. Naren, Ilwea and Alerra would also be recognized, but she didn’t bother to name the whole list, they got her point. That left Gam, Veeso, Ipiar and Fenja, but they were the least experienced of the group, all but Veeso were in their lower teens and he had only been with them a little over a week.

“Okay, Gam, then.” Ren gave in.

“Nope.” Joial spoke up. “I saw Gam’s name on a list last week, they may have his face by now.”

Ren hesitated. He couldn’t bring himself to order any of the remaining three into that snake pit. “We’ll find another way, then.”

“I’ll do it.” Ipiar said.

Ren shook his head. “It’s too dangerous.”

“Isn’t that what we’re all here for?” She argued.

“If you’re ID’d and your name goes into their system, your family would be in danger.”

“So are most of yours.” She shot back, looking around. “I’d hate for anything to happen to my family because of me, but I can’t let that stop me from doing my part. I get how important this is. If Trok talks, all of you could be killed, and other cells too. I’m willing to do this.”

Ren glanced at Kee, communicating almost telepathically. No matter how risky the plan was, it was really their only shot.

“Alright.” He gave in, “Work with Joial on how to upload the virus. Cadda and Naren will watch the front entrance, everybody else, we’ll wait for Joial to pinpoint the secondary entrance.”

* * *

They received word from Cadda that Ipiar had gone in a few minutes ago. Ipiar had no comm unit, so they could only wait for Joial’s signal that she’d done her job. Kee didn’t want to imagine how she’d have felt if she’d been sent on a mission like that within only a few months of joining up.

The raiding party waited silently in the darkness, barely visible in the light of two partial moons. Ren was at her side as usual and the others were dotted around the area far enough apart that if someone was spotted, the others would have a chance to slip away.

She hated this part. Waiting. She wasn’t terribly opposed to idleness, but waiting was different. There was no way to know how long it would take for Ipiar to upload the virus. No way to know how long was too long and something had gone wrong. Sitting there with her body coiled to spring into action at a moment’s notice, her legs had started to cramp, but she avoided shifting any more than necessary.

_“I’m in.”_

She’d hoped that her tiny jump at Joial’s sudden voice over the comm would go unnoticed, but she saw Ren shoot an amused, sideways glance at her.

_“It looks like the rear entrance is just east of your position. You’re looking for a hatch. And you’ll come in at the south-west corner of the facility.”_

_South-west corner._ Kee thought as they began to move in the right direction, searching for a hatch embedded in the forest floor. According to Joial’s sketch, that would put it at the end of a large and disorganized grouping of rooms to one side. That would make it easier for them to get separated, but may provide more cover, at least.

“I found it.” Alerra whispered loudly, kicking forest debris away.

As they converged on her location, Ren asked, “Joial, can you open it for us?”

The comm was silent for a moment, then he said, _“I don’t think so. It looks like the lock is not part of the network.”_

Arriving first, Kee dropped to her knees, already flicking her utility knife open to pry the cover off of the lock. She felt the others ring around her protectively while she worked, popping the cover off and threading her fingers inside the mechanism to bypass it.

The hatch was definitely not an original part of the building. The Cardassians must have added it when they took over the place and demolished the above-ground structure.

 _“You’re looking at a squad of twenty-seven soldiers and two officers. One is guarding the prisoners; one is with the cleaning crew and one is in the barracks hallway. The rest are in their quarters, I’m locking them down.”_ Joial informed them as he apparently dug deeper into the system.

“Any sign of Ipiar?” Ren asked.

_“No alerts so far. But that’s all I can tell. Wherever she is, she’s staying away from the security feeds.” ___

____

That was a good sign, at least, Kee thought as the lock disengaged with a metallic pop.

____

Without waiting even a beat, Ren lifted the hatch open, swept a visual of the area below and stepped down onto the ladder. “Ilwea and Alerra, guard this entrance.”

____

_“Besides Trok, there … eight other pris…ners down there.”_ Joial said. His signal began to cut out as Kee descended after Ren followed by the rest of their party. _“Suspected …sistance sympathizers.”_

____

“Copy.” Ren whispered, but the look on his face said much more. That would complicate things. “We’re moving in.”

____

Joial would know to maintain comm silence except in the case of an emergency, so they didn’t wait for a response.

____

Kee flipped open the scope on her phaser rifle as she followed Ren down the dimly lit hallway. The scope displayed outlines of Cardassians that it detected through the old brick walls. Most of them appeared to be asleep in their beds.

____

Maybe these weapons were worth the risk after all. Or maybe just the scopes could be salvaged and rigged up to work with other phasers.

____

They reached a split in the hallway that she recognized from Joial’s sketch. Ren signaled her to take the right. She, in turn, signaled Fenja and Veeso to come with her, leaving Gam with Ren. The two paths would come back together at either end of what they expected to be the holding cells.

____

Her phaser continued to show outlines of sleeping Cardassians through the walls in addition to rooms that it indicated as empty. When she spotted what looked like a barring wall, she signaled Fenja: _Bomb_. And pointed out where she wanted him to attach it. The explosives were already connected to Ren’s remote, all they had to do was set them.

____

She motioned for them to stop when the phaser’s diagram showed her a Cardassian standing guard around the corner and down the hall.

____

Lowering her weapon slowly, she reached for her knife and clicked the blade into place as silently as she could. She gaged the distance, positioned the blade in her hand for a half rotation throw and lunged into view of the guard a split second before she threw the knife, sinking it directly into the center of his throat.

____

He clawed at the blade making only wet choking sounds and stumbled backward onto the floor.

____

As his fight began to weaken, he reached desperately for the hand phaser that had fallen out of its holster when he fell.

____

Kee calmly stepped forward and pressed her boot on his wrist, pinning his hand down. Then she reached down to snatch her knife from his throat.

____

Without the knife to block the wound, the blood flowed freely and soon what little color his race had in their skin bled away from his face while she watched dispassionately from above.

____

When she was sure he was no longer a threat, she picked up his phaser and tucked it into her waist band. With the two trainees close at her back, she lifted her phaser again and continued toward their target, stopping at two more structural walls to place their bombs.

____

Around the next corner there was another lifeform, but it didn’t look like a Cardassian. This individual was smaller and didn’t move the way Cardassians did. Kee stepped cautiously into view only to have Ipiar practically throw herself at her.

____

She quickly looked her over with relief to find she wasn’t injured, but she was shaking noticeably.

____

“Are you okay?” Kee whispered.

____

“Yes.” She hesitated. “I uploaded the virus.”

____

Obviously.

____

“Yes, we know.” Kee waited for her to continue, there was definitely something more to it.

____

“I, um, made the guard think was willing to…” Her voice trailed off, no more explanation was necessary.

____

That was a dangerous game to play, especially for someone so new. “Did he hurt you?” Kee demanded through a whisper.

____

“No.” She said with a shudder.

____

“Did you kill him?”

____

She didn’t respond, lost in thoughts of what could have happened.

____

“Did. You. Kill. Him?” Kee insisted.

____

Ipiar finally nodded and Kee checked that off of her list of things to do down here, passing her the hand phaser she’d picked up.

____

“The holding cells should be right around this next corner.” She said, though it was unnecessary, they’d all studied the map.

____

She flattened herself against the wall and edged close to the opening to hear the definite sound of breathing from just around the corner. Even though she’d been close to the enemy many times before, her heart raced in her chest and even now she had to fight the urge to get away.

____

Lifting her weapon to see the control screen, she confirmed what she remembered from earlier in the day, the power output on the minimum setting was around only 12MW. Low enough not to set off the alarms, but was it enough to incapacitate a Cardassian? She wasn’t sure.

____

To be safe, she wanted to fire at very close range. Directly into his spinal column if possible. The weapon’s scope had indicated that the Cardassian was facing in a direction that he would be able to see her the moment she came around the corner. She waved at her team to back up until they were back down the hallway they had come from and activated her communicator.

____

Holding it close to her mouth, she whispered, barely audible, “Ren, I’m at the holding cells, but I need the guard to turn your direction.”

____

He didn’t reply directly, but the indicator light on the communicator blinked once for ‘yes.’ He didn’t need to say more.

____

She and her party crept back to where they had been, keeping her eye on the display in the scope. The Cardassian was exactly where he’d been before, positioned so that he could watch both ends of the hallway.

____

Kee stole a glance at the trainees. Unmasked fear danced across their eyes, but they held steady waiting for her to make a move. She, in turn, held a practiced calm expression on her face despite the very same fear gnawing at her gut. Taking out this guard was one thing, but if his colleagues woke and managed to override the locks on their doors before they were done with what they needed to do, they’d be pinned in down here in a firefight.

____

The guard turned his head away sharply toward the faintest sound and Kee made her move. She stepped around the corner and grabbed the rim of his collar while simultaneously jamming the tip of her phaser into the back of his neck.

____

He’d barely registered her presence and moved to fight back when she pulled the trigger. With the weapon pressed hard against his skin, there was barely even a flash before his body went slack and she let him drop down onto the floor.

____

“Joial, we’re at the holding cells, can you unlock them?” She said quietly into the comm, but not as much so as before.

____

_“Working… it.”_ His signal still cut in and out.

____

They waited an agonizingly long two or three seconds before the control panels winked off.

____

Kee was on the move immediately. “Get ‘em out.” She ordered and opened the first door.

____

Inside the first cell, a young teenage boy blinked up at her from the floor of the pitch-black cell that looked like it had originally been a closet.

____

“Come!” She urged him and held out her hand to help him to his feet. When she was sure he understood he was being rescued, she yanked open the next door.

____

A strange hissing sound greeted her before she saw Trok in the darkness. He’d somehow managed to fit his entire body so far into the corner that she’d almost missed him. The only thing that had caught her attention was his oversized pinky-orange ears.

____

“Come on!” She ordered and he was on his feet immediately. She wadded the fabric of his shoulder in her fist to keep hold of him, she was not going to let him out of her sight.

____

While she was in Trok’s cell, Ren and Gam joined them and escorted the other prisoners out of their cells.

____

“The civilians are already on their way up.” Ren informed her.

____

_“You’ve… couple of the Cardies… override the locks on their...”_ Joial warned.

____

“Get moving.” Ren ordered, but the prisoners stood around like they were shell-shocked. “Now! We have people up there.” He began ushering them toward the spiral staircase that would take them to freedom.

____

Once Joial had control of the security system, Cadda and Naren would have taken out the guards up there at their discretion. They could be certain that would have happened by now.

____

Kee dragged Trok after the other prisoners, allowing them to go up first while she shifted anxiously back and forth from foot to foot.

____

“… can’t hold them… longer.”

____

While they were waiting for the prisoners to ascend at an achingly slow pace, her eyes tracked Ren into a large adjacent room where he set more charges. The decorations from the original occupants still hung tattered on the wall, identifying it as a room for group and individual meditation. Then her gaze fell to the center of the room where there was a metal chair, a table full of medical instruments next to it and a thick chain above it. The uneven stone floor was covered in large, dark stains where captives had blead out with spatters of fresh blood on top of them.

____

The upsurge in the back of her throat forced her to turn away. They’d turned a place meant for peace and contemplation into dungeon of horrors. She tamped down the pang of grief at the thought of those that had died there and the unsettling truth that any one of their lives cold end in a place like this.

____

She heard Joial shout something she couldn’t make out through the fragmented comm followed by a door not far away bang open. No, three doors. She looked to see that the last of the prisoners were on the stairs.

____

“Go! Hurry!” She shouted at them, but it was too late for Ren, Trok and her to join them. She pulled Trok backward toward cover, readying her phaser at the same time.

____

The Cardassians came in firing, blasting the area so fiercely, the three were forced to take refuge in the interrogation room.

____

In the chaos, Trok wiggled loose from her grip and disappeared somewhere behind her. No matter, he couldn’t get out that way, so she focused on returning fire. The full energy from the Starfleet weapon discharged smoothly, but the Cardassians were well hidden.

____

After a momentary break, the Cardassians began firing on them again. It barely registered to her conscious mind that the explosives Ren had set were directly in the line of fire. She turned to see energy blasts pelt the wall dangerously close to one of them.

____

Then, while she watched, a beam struck the explosive. She saw just the initial flash of the explosion before Ren leapt towards her and his body slammed into hers, knocking her down behind a partition wall where Trok was hiding while the blast washed over them.

____

Stunned and gasping, Kee rolled over to see Ren lying next to her. He wasn’t moving. He wasn’t breathing. She checked for a pulse, but there wasn’t one.

____

She could hear the enemy coming to as well.

____

“Get him back there!” She ordered Trok, nodding to an area farther behind them with better cover.

____

But Trok didn’t move, he only stared at Ren’s body, frozen.

____

They didn’t have time for this. She turned her weapon on him.

____

He screeched in fear and cowered, uselessly coving his face.

____

“Now!” She shouted and he finally moved, hooking his elbows under Ren’s arms and dragging him to safety.

____

She leaned out around the wall to pick the Cardassians off before they got their bearings.

____

It had been close to a minute without Ren’s heart beating, she had to move fast. Kneeling over him, her fingers walked along his sternum for the right location, she placed one hand on top of the other and pressed down hard and fast with all of her body weight. With the first push, cartilage in his ribcage cracked with a sick sound, but she didn’t stop.

____

She counted to thirty compressions, then tilted his head back and covered his mouth with hers. She gave two hard breaths, watching for his chest to rise, then returned to chest compressions.

____

“Come on.” She whispered, fighting back the tears that threatened her eyes. Her control was beginning to break. She couldn’t lose him. She told him this was a bad plan.

____

She reached thirty and followed with two more breaths.

____

_Don’t do this!_ She begged him in her thoughts as she struggled to keep a fast-enough pace.

____

More Cardassians were on the way. She could hear them down the corridor. She estimated she could do one more set of compressions before she had to leave him.

____

“They’re coming!” Trok shrieked. “It’s too late for him!”

____

She lifted his chin again and blew into his mouth. As she raised up for another breath, he coughed and lurched as his body jolted back to life.

____

Confused, he grasped at her arms with wide eyes, but she had to pull away. The enemy was coming.

____

_“…out of there!”_ Joial’s broken voice came over the comm.

____

With no time to celebrate, she stood and faced the oncoming soldiers. They weren’t in sight yet, but they would be soon.

____

“Get him on his feet!” She ordered Trok as she grabbed Ren’s phaser. They couldn’t leave anything behind that would let the Cardassians know what kind of weapons they had.

____

With painful steps, first from the blast, then from the assault on his ribcage, Ren and Trok shuffled toward the spiral staircase.

____

Kee moved along beside them, watching the hallway. When she spotted the first gray uniform, she opened fire, unleashing everything this weapon could deliver to hold them back long enough for the other two to get up to the surface.

____

Sidestepping up the stairs, she kept firing until warning lights blinked on the phaser, then she switched to the other one. Her shots were less continuous as she climbed and parts of the support structure got in the way and the Cardassians were able to advance somewhat.

____

The moment Ren and Trok were out, she bolted for the top of the stairs with phaser blasts pelting the metal treads at her feet.

____

She emerged from the entrance to be greeted by the noses of Cadda and Naren’s weapons and she slipped between them as they began to fire down into the opening before backing up to follow.

____

By now, Alerra and Fenja were flanking Ren to move away more quickly and Kee reacquired her grip on Trok’s jacket.

____

The moment they were far enough away, Naren pulled the detonator out of Ren’s pocket and pressed the button.

____

The rubble of the old monastery heaved upward suddenly. She felt a pressure change in her ears as the shockwave pulsed over them, followed instantly by a fireball that blossomed out of the exit, incinerating the few Cardassians that had made it out. Then the rubble fell in on itself and sunk into the pit where the den of horrors and before that, the house of the Prophets had once been.

____

* * *

____

Kee paced a few anxious steps before forcing herself to stop. They’d made it far enough away to be able to stop so Ilwea could tend to Ren, but they were still well within the search radius.

____

Just as she was about to start moving again, she froze in place at the low rumble of a skimmer approaching. She compulsively checked to be sure her biosigns were masked and saw the others do so too.

____

She swallowed hard as the skimmer passed overhead, reminding herself that the trees would hide them visibly and the Cardassians’ sensors would be useless. The tiny hairs on the back of her neck stood on end anyway, even as the vessel moved off into the distance.

____

One glance at Ren told her he was in bad shape and she had to force herself not to hover over the pair. Their biosigns were masked, yes, but if too many of them were grouped together, they might be detectable. Besides, Ilwea would just shoo her away anyway.

____

Short of death and dismemberment, she didn’t actually know what an explosion did to a body, so she couldn’t even guess at what could be wrong, but it didn’t escape her that Ilwea had scanned his head an especially long time.

____

Did he take a severe blow to the head? Had his brain gone too long without oxygen?

____

She forced herself to stop panic speculating and calm down. Or at least _look_ like she was calm. Other than Ilwea, all eyes were on her. If he wasn’t still so dazed, Ren would have told her to be a good example for the others.

____

The pitch of the distant skimmer changed, telling her it was returning for another pass. They needed to get moving as soon as he was up to it.

____

“Ilwea.” She said in place of the obvious question.

____

“He has a couple of cracked ribs.” He glanced up at her for an instant, “From the explosion, you didn’t do that.” He assured her, then continued. “Some burns, definitely a concussion. There’s not a lot I can tell beyond that until he’s a little more lucid.”

____

_Brain damage_ was what he left unsaid.

____

That panic from before began to crawl up her insides again. He was her strength. He was everything. Her thoughts spiraled. She couldn’t do this without him. She _told_ him it was a bad plan! She glanced around for someone to blame and her eyes landed on Trok. The moron who had gotten himself captured in the first place. Maybe they should have just eliminated him! She fingered the weapon that hung from her shoulder.

____

Seeming to sense her thoughts, he withered away from her.

____

No. Anyone could get caught. She had been plenty of times and others had to come in and save her. She was just looking for a target. Then it hit her that nearly everyone was still watching her.

____

She reined in her feelings once again. They had work to do. How were they going to get Trok out of the system safely? She rubbed her hands over her face and asked the group some semblance of that question, but with considerably more profanity.

____

“I think someone in Kaln’s cell has a contact onboard a transport vessel that dumps waste out beyond the Denorios Belt.” Naren offered. They’d worked with Kaln once or twice. Didn’t have a solid relationship with him or his cell, but it could work.

____

“A garbage scow?” Trok protested more loudly than was wise under the circumstances. “Absolutely not!”

____

Kee turned to face him, hefting her weapon. “Or I could shoot you right here.”

____

Trok pursed his lips defiantly. He’d seen through her threat. She knew better than to try to bluff a Ferengi and he was calling her on it. Though it didn’t matter, there were eleven of them and only one of him, he had no choice. And she certainly wasn’t in the mood to compromise for him.

____

“You and I will contact Kaln as soon as we’re out of this mess.” She told Naren.

____

“Kee.” Ren said weakly.

____

She didn’t have to be asked a second time, she took a couple of long strides toward him and dropped to one knee. Ilwea took a few steps away to give them space, but not too far.

____

With immense relief, she saw his eyes focus on her. She didn’t have to be a medic to know that was a good sign.

____

“Thank you.” He said softly to her, slipping his hand into hers. “Casualties? Injuries?”

____

She had to force the lump in her throat to relax in order to speak. “Just you.” She said with a lopsided smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “Though, I would have been okay with one other one.” She tipped her head toward Trok.

____

“The workers and prisoners?”

____

“We sent the workers home to gather their families and get out of town in case the Cardassians come looking for them. The prisoners are still with us. They’re on their feet, at least.”

____

“We can drop them at Heydern.” He said. It was the nearest town that was friendly to them. Not exactly the safest place, but it was better than staying with them.

____

“That’s what I was thinking.” She gave his hand a squeeze. “Glad you’re still with us.”

____

That statement didn’t begin to communicate her feelings, but it was all she could manage at the moment without breaking down. And now was not the time for that.

____

She turned to Ilwea. “Are we okay to move?”

____

He nodded and she tucked her shoulder under Ren’s arm and lifted him up.

____


	11. Family

_9369, Bajor (2367, Earth Calendar)_

Entis’ tears soaked into the shoulder of Jora’s threadbare sweater even as his sobs cut through her heart.

They’d received word just that morning that his youngest son, Jento, had been killed. It had happened some time ago, but news had only just reached them. Making any joy he’d experienced in that time seem like an affront.

Jora steeled herself against his grief, her own was still so raw. Only a month ago, one of her sons had been killed in a vicious fight between the Cardassians and the Resistance. He wasn’t even a part of the conflict, he was only waiting in line for the day’s rations for her, himself and his twin brother.

She fought back her own tears, focusing on being present for the man clinging to her like she could somehow bring him comfort. But she couldn’t. There was nothing that could be said, nothing that could be done to ease the pain of losing a child.

The two of them had become friends years ago through their mutual connection to the resistance. His son and her daughter were in different cells, but the infrequent news they received from their children would usually come through the same channels at the same time. It was never more than a simple message that they were still alive, and even then, by the time they received it, anything could have happened. At best, it was a small, momentary comfort. But today, the worst news had come for him.

She couldn’t keep her worry from pulling her attention back to her daughter, Keedra. Her sweet little girl that had been taken from her so many years ago. The resistance saved her from execution at the hands of the Cardassians, then somehow coerced her into following them. How they could possibly justify putting a girl so young into that position she could not comprehend.

Whoever the leaders of that group were, she hated them. She’d lost so much time with Keedra already. She couldn’t bear to think of what could be happening to her right at that moment, or in the next, or the five years prior. She could hardly breathe at the thought that she could be next.

There was nothing she could do for Keedra, only wait and hope and pray to the Prophets for her safety. None of that had done any good for Jento, but it was all she had. And she could only sit with Entis while his grief poured out.

* * *

Kee pulled her coat tighter around her neck to try and conserve the little bit of body heat she still retained. Her feet were nearly numb, the icy ground she stood on had drawn out any heat long ago. It had snowed a few days earlier, then partly melted making huge mud puddles in the bare, stripped ground. Now today the temperature had dropped back below freezing and the mud iced up.

A few people ambled about aimlessly with their coats tight around their necks too. She glanced around again at the rows of temporary shelters and remains of old buildings that had partly fallen down. At the dwindling line of people in the distance waiting for food and the tall, gray fence that ran along behind all of it.

She’d spent the first eleven years of her life here, but somehow the place seemed smaller, the fence less menacing, the Cardassian presence less terrifying. But the Bajorans also seemed less hopeful. She understood how they felt. When Ren had told her about her latest mission, a chill that had nothing to do with the weather had sunk deep into her bones.

“Two hours late. He’s probably been arrested.” Veeso said nervously, interrupting her thoughts.

It was entirely possible that their contact had been taken into custody. If that were the case, they were all as good as dead anyway.

“They could be interrogating him right now.” Veeso insisted.

“We have another half hour before we have to be out of here.” The Cardassians would close the gates in half an hour, after which travel outside of the refugee camp was strictly prohibited even with their forged paperwork.

Kee watched the people going by for familiar faces. Every minute they were there she risked being recognized. But this mission was more important than their two lives, and they would give their contact every possible chance to make it happen, besides, no one seemed willing to make eye contact anyway.

“There. Green scarf.” She said quietly, spotting their contact. They began walking toward him. Without making eye contact or speaking they passed, slightly bumping into each other. She felt an isolinear rod drop into her pocket and kept walking, resisting the urge to reach in and grab it. The information that rod contained, if it turned out to be genuine, could have grave consequences if the Cardassians were able to reacquire it.

They turned a corner toward the gate to see it already shut, then turned back quickly to avoid calling attention to themselves.

“What now?” Veeso whispered.

Kee tried to think through their options. With what was now in her pocket they couldn’t risk being caught trying to sneak out over or under the fence. They were stuck inside for the night.

But that created its own risks. She had learned at a very young age never to be out after curfew. Her brothers had convinced her to sneak out of the house with them one night. As they hid in the shadows of the alleyway, they’d seen a man hurrying back to his home a few minutes later than curfew allowed. A couple of Cardassian patrols stopped him. They harassed him, becoming violent. They beat him to death while the three children watched from their hiding place, too scared to move, then they left his body in the street for people to find the next morning as an example.

Glinn Mesak ran this place with efficiency and brutality that rivaled some of the worst on the planet. The people here were so scared, there weren’t many of them who would be willing to risk putting up two resistance fighters even for one night. She sighed, choosing the only option that might get them out of this alive and with the isolinear rod safe. “Follow me.”

They walked quickly past the shelters through the refugee camp. Eventually they reached the part of the camp where some rough houses had been built. Each one identical: a common living area with only an antiquated wood-burning stove for cooking, an equally antiquated restroom and two bedrooms. Almost all of them had two to four families living together inside. But at least there was an inside. So many others in the temporary shelters didn’t even have that much protection from the elements.

Reaching the home that she recognized only by its distance from the crossroad, not any distinguishing markings it had, she stopped.

“Wait here.” She told Veeso and crossed the street toward the house.

The rain-soaked steps up to the door flexed as she put her weight on them as though they were about to break. She stepped at the edge where the wood would have more support under it. Reaching the top, she knocked on the door.

She glanced around anxiously while she waited. Maybe this was a bad idea. She was putting them in danger just being in the camp at all. And now coming here? It was foolish, she had just begun to turn and leave when the door scraped open enough for woman’s face to appear, she recognized her as one of their housemates, Hese, but wasn’t sure if she recognized her.

When she said nothing, Kee asked, “Is my mother here?”

Without answering, Hese closed the door. She could hear a muffled voice calling her mother’s name.

She glanced back at Veeso waiting in the street.

A minute later the door opened and her mother reached out to grab the front of her coat, pulling her inside and slammed the door.

Inside, she found herself wrapped in a tight embrace and for just a moment, she allowed herself to sink into it. She’d thought she was prepared to see her again, but the mixed flood of emotions was nearly overwhelming. She quickly clamped down on them.

When her mother let go, she held onto her hands, hastily touching each of Kee’s fingers.

“Do you want to count my toes too?” She said sarcastically because it seemed to be the only thing she could manage to say without losing her control.

“Keedra, what are you doing here?” Her mother said, not as a rebuke or criticism.

“They closed the gates early, we need somewhere to stay for the night.”

“‘We?’”

“Just me and a colleague.” She said simply. The least amount of information she shared, the better it was for them.

“Well, bring him inside!”

Kee leaned back out the door and waved for Veeso to come in.

Her mother turned away. “Let me get you some cups of hot water to warm you up.” She said graciously as though she were hosting guests at a dinner party.

Finally, Kee looked around the room. There were at least a dozen people sitting around the common room, most of them she knew, some must have moved in after she’d left.

The odd thing that caught her attention was that everyone was sitting on the floor. The place had never been lavishly furnished, a few mismatched wooden chairs, a bench and a table. But now even those were gone.

“What happened to the furniture?” She said softly.

She had meant the question for her mother, but someone else answered. “After the resistance attack last month, the spoon heads cut off the power to the entire camp. We had to break up the furniture and burn it to keep warm.” It took her a moment to remember his name, Yehen.

Kee simply nodded, unable to say anything else.

She shouldn’t feel guilty. The Cardassians blamed the resistance every time they reduced the people’s rations or further restricted what little freedom they had or any other such retaliation. Too many of their people fell for it and resented the resistance.

No, what she felt was more like failure than guilt. These were the very people they were trying to save.

Veeso opened the door and she moved away to give him room to enter just as her mother was bringing them two dented metal mugs full of hot water.

“I have to tend to Abea, I’ll come back as soon as I can.” Her mother said and hurried to the back of the house into one of the bedrooms.

She had a compassionate nature that lead her to act as a caregiver to anyone who was sick or injured. Not that there was much she could do without actual medical supplies, but she understood herbal medicine and did what she could to make them more comfortable.

With her mother gone Kee motioned Veeso toward an empty spot in the room, avoiding flashes of suspicion cast her way from people she used to play with as children and others that had looked after her when her mother was busy. Most of them knew who she was and where she’d been for the last five years, and those who didn’t were quickly informed.

Yehen’s lips clearly formed the word ‘resistance’ silently to the woman seated next to him.

She moved carefully to avoid letting her coat hang open and expose the phaser tucked in her belt. Her presence there was worrisome enough for them without highlighting the fact that she was armed.

Sinking down onto the floor, she wrapped her stiff and numb fingers around the hot mug almost to the point of burning them, just to be able to feel sensation again. Finally, she took a sip and memories flooded back at the familiar taste. It was only water, nobody here ever had anything as luxurious as tea, but the water here always had a stale, musty flavor that came from dirty pipes, and when boiled, it leached something from the cups, adding a metallic taste to it. She hadn’t realized how different fresh water from a running stream was.

Despite the taste, she enjoyed the stark feeling of heat traveling down her throat that heated her body from the inside. She’d actually stopped shivering by the time she finished it and set the cup down on the floor in front of her.

“We’ll get out of here first thing tomorrow when they open the gates.” She said softly to Veeso. She didn’t want to be here a moment longer than they needed to be. “We approach the gate like everything’s normal and present our travel permits. Just like we got in.”

“What if they know we’re here and go on lockdown?” He whispered, barely audible.

Not an unreasonable concern. Their contact would have had to find a place to spend the night, too. If he was caught and interrogated, he didn’t know their names, but he could be forced to give away their meeting place. With that, it wouldn’t be difficult to spot them on a security feed.

“In that case, I’ll create a distraction while you slip out and go straight to the rendezvous. Do not come back for me.”

He shook his head, “You’re more experienced, you should be the one to get out.”

“That’s exactly why it needs to be me that stays.” It simply came down to the fact that she could hold up under interrogation longer than he would. She just hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

For the first time since the handoff she reached into her pocket and pulled out the isolinear rod. She palmed it and handed it off to him.

Judging by the position of the setting sun it was nearly curfew when Kee heard footsteps outside. She automatically stiffened, the steps were heavy, but didn’t sound Cardassian. With some effort, the door scraped open just far enough for a lone figure to slip inside.

At first, she thought it was her brother, Kirsht, and for a second she was happy to see him. But in a moment it was crushed when she remembered. Kirsht was gone. Killed in an unnecessary and useless attack on the Cardassians by one of the other cells. Their leader was reckless and shortsighted. And now her brother was dead because of their negligence.

When she’d first heard about it, part of her had hoped that he’d been identified wrong. That it had been Edda who’d been shot in the crossfire. Edda, the cruel one, not Kirsht, who was gentle and kind. As soon as she’d realized what she was hoping for, she hated herself for it. But it was there, nonetheless.

And now, Edda stood at the doorway, stomping the slush off of his boots. The moment his eyes landed on her, he froze. A glower slowly settled on his features and her stomach twisted. The Resistance had killed his twin and she was part of the Resistance. Plain and simple.

And Kee, who had stood toe-to-toe against Cardassians, now withered under her brother’s wordless accusation and she couldn’t hold his stare.

Saying nothing, he finally stomped to the back of the house.

She took a deep breath to shake it off. Getting the isolinear rod out of the camp was more important that a broken relationship with her brother.

* * *

Abea’s fever had worsened. A simple cut had become infected and the infection had spread, there wasn’t anything Jora could do to help other than keeping her comfortable and hydrated while her body fought. She left another woman in charge in case she woke and needed her and she hurried away.

Keedra was here. Her baby was home.

She could hardly accept that it was real. But a dreadful nag tugged away at her excitement. The Cardassians knew who she was and what she looked like. If they found her, she’d be executed for sure. For her to risk coming here, something had to be very wrong.

She shoved the thought away. Whatever it was was out of her control and she wouldn’t let it ruin her one chance to be with her daughter. It had been so long since she had seen her last, not knowing from one day to the next whether she was even alive.

Edda stomped past her in the hallway. He had always hated the resistance. He blamed them for all of their troubles, for his father’s death, and now his brother’s. Over the last five years she had heard him berate his sister for having joined them. She only hoped the two of them could work it out eventually. Assuming Keedra could ever come home permanently.

When she came out into the common area Keedra was speaking quietly but urgently with her partner. He looked significantly older than her, Jora briefly wondered who he was, but she knew enough about the resistance not to expect an introduction.

Keedra looked up at her mother and turned away from the man.

With a start, Jora saw the handle of a phaser just inside her coat, a blunt reminder of the life her daughter led. “Don’t let me interrupt.”

“Not at all.” Keedra said sounding much more grown up than she ought to.

Jora sat on the floor. “I wanted to spend some time with you while we have the chance.”

“I’d like that.” She said, smiling for the first time that evening.

She observed her daughter for a few moments, her face had changed so much, matured, thinned considerably. Her childhood dimples were entirely gone. It broke her heart to be reminded of all that she’d missed. Suddenly she wasn’t sure how to start. “How’s your uncle?”

“He’s fine.” She said softly, not giving away any information.

She tried again, “Are you getting enough to eat?”

Keedra shrugged, “We manage. Cardassian rations, mostly, but it keeps us going.”

She searched for another topic, “What about your Itanu? Were you able to observe it at all?”

“Not really. Things were kind-of difficult right then.” She said cryptically, although Jora knew what she was referring to.

Everyone had heard about the massacres less than a year before Keedra would have turned fourteen. Of course, she had feared the worst. Sometime after that she’d heard from someone who heard from someone else who heard from someone else and so on that Keedra was still out there. And now here she was. It was clear that everything was not alright, but she was alive and for that, Jora was grateful.

“We heard about what happened in Hegasa. Did you know them?” She asked, searching for anything to keep her talking.

“I can’t talk about that.” She said softly.

If they couldn’t talk about her life, maybe she could tell her about what was happening in the camp.

“Do you remember Esul?” He was one of the older boys who used to help watch the younger children. She continued when Keedra nodded. “He and Vedra got married a few months ago.”

Her nose scrunched up against her nasal ridges and Jora finally saw something familiar in her face. “Really?” She said, doubtful. “She hated him.”

“Since when?”

“Always. She used to call him a ‘vaginal dust storm’ and he called her a ‘queef heard around the world’.”

Jora’s eyes widened at the vulgar insults that rolled so easily off her tongue.

“You do know that every time we were getting into trouble, he was usually the ringleader.” She said steadily as though it should have been obvious.

“But he was so responsible.”

She smiled slyly, “He played you guys.”

Jora signed heavily, she’d need to have a talk with that boy.

Despite Keedra’s attempt at cheerfulness, Jora could see a heaviness to her smile, a darkness in her eyes, experience beyond her years. She talked vaguely about events and people without sharing a single detail, seeming to guard every word. Every hurt a child experienced was felt ten times over by the mother and she found it to be crushing.

What had she been through? Who had she known and lost?

Jora still mourned her children’s father. Falam had worked in a records office when the Cardassians became suspicious that he was passing information on to the resistance. They had arrested him and he died in prison a few days later. She had hoped her daughter would have been spared that pain. But looking into her face, she knew that was not the case. No tears ever came to her eyes. She had buried the pain. Jora couldn’t blame her for that.

Eventually Keedra spoke again, “I’m sorry I couldn’t be here for you after Kersht…” She didn’t finish the sentence. “I couldn’t put you and Edda at risk by coming here.”

Now it was Jora’s turn to bury her pain. Losing her husband was difficult, then her daughter to the resistance, and now one of her sons. She still called Edda by his brother’s name sometimes, sending both of them into tears. “We understood. Edda’s angry about a lot of things, but deep down I think he does understand why you have to stay away.”

“Still, I wished I could have been here for you.”

“So, why now? Why did you take the risk now?”

Keedra leaned back, a mask of cool composure sliding into place, “All I can tell you is that our mission is more important than any of our lives, and it’s crucial that we complete it.”

What could she have gotten herself involved in? What kind of leaders did they have that could talk her into believing her life was valueless compared to some mission? Jora thought about pressing her about it, but she’d been such a stubborn child and she doubted that had eased at all. It was late and she didn’t have the energy to argue about something so pointless. Her mission was what it was and trying to get details about it wouldn’t change anything.

Reluctantly, she told Keedra good night and left to check on her patient before laying down for the night.

* * *

Kee and Veeso slipped out of the house as early in the morning as possible. She wanted to avoid making them feel obligated to share their meager supplies with them, besides she didn’t want to run in to Edda again.

Or, frankly, her mother. The judgement had been heavy in her voice when she asked about their mission. She wished she could tell her everything. Make her understand what they were up against. Why she would be willing to put her life at such extreme risk. But the less any of them knew, the better it was for everyone.

The morning air was even colder than it had been the night before. She hoped that would slow down the Cardassians enough for them to get out without too much inspection. But as they approached the nearest gate, they saw that a checkpoint had been setup during the night, the Cardassians were preparing to search everyone leaving the camp.

“They must know we’re here.” She said quietly, slowing their pace.

 _Plan B_ , she thought with panic crawling up her spine. 

This was it, she’d known it could come down to this. She’d put her life on the line plenty of times before, but to offer it like a sacrifice was almost too much. But they had no choice. Her life in exchange for her world. She couldn’t back out now.

“Get that isolinear rod out of here.” She demanded.

He hesitated, and she shoved him away from her as she turned the other direction toward an empty area where nobody else would be in danger.

Once he was far away from her, she knelt down on one knee and pulled out her phaser and begged the Prophets for strength.

* * *

Keedra had snuck out before anyone else was awake. She had been so guarded about her mission, Jora was worried something might happen, so she followed at a distance to make sure she got out safely.

Edda, ever protective of his mother, insisted on coming with her.

“I just want to make sure she gets out okay.” She insisted. Even though there was nothing she could do to help if something went wrong, she still had to be there.

When they finally neared the gate, there were a lot more Cardassians there than usual and her heart sank. Keedra wasn’t going to be able to get passed without being searched. Then she’d be arrested and executed. Was this how little value her so-called colleagues placed on her life?

When they caught sight of her, Keedra was not with her partner and walking quickly away from the crowd of people starting to get in line for the day’s rations. What was she doing? Jora wondered with a lump of dread in her stomach.

Then she felt her strength give out as Keedra stopped in the open space and knelt down in the gravel on one knee. She pulled out a phaser and fired on the Cardassians guarding the gate.

Jora screamed and tried to run to her daughter to stop her, but strong hands gripped her from behind. Edda held her back. The crowd scattered frantically.

As they watched, horrified, Keedra had shot two Cardassians, one at the checkpoint and one in the guard tower, while they scrambled to respond.

The second Cardassian at the checkpoint dove behind his booth and fired back, pelting the ground around Keedra. The phaser blasts sent dust and gravel into the air around her yet she kept shooting.

_She kept shooting!_

Other Cardassians appeared, she was surrounded with nowhere to run even if she had any intention to.

Finally, Keedra put her hands up, holding the phaser in the crook of her thumb.

Edda tried to pull Jora away from the scene, but she wouldn’t move. If her daughter was going to die that day, she couldn’t bear to see it, but neither could she turn away.

Three soldiers surrounded her with their weapons trained on her as they approached.

Jora waited, unable to breathe.

One of them stepped warily closer to her from behind as though he expected, even with their weapons trained on her, she’d still turn on them. When he was close enough, he grabbed the phaser out of her hand and shoved her down onto the frozen ground.

Even from that distance, Jora heard the wind knocked out of her lungs when she landed.

With his knee on her back, the Cardassian wrenched her hands behind her and snapped cuffs around her wrists. It was only then that the others lowered their weapons. He hauled her back to her knees only to raise his phaser and strike her on the side of her face knocking her almost back to the ground.

Jora, desperate to run to her, to do anything but just watch, was still held firmly in place by her son.

Keedra straightened and turned back with squared shoulders as though a bruise wasn’t already forming high on her cheek.

The Cardassian gave an order and Keedra was lifted to her feet and lead away.

As the soldiers began dispersing the crowd, Edda pulled Jora numbly away.

* * *

A Cardassian held Kee’s arm in a vice grip as he propelled her roughly through the corridor. His hold on her threw off her balance and she struggled to keep her footing. Every so often one of the other two guards jabbed her in the back with his phaser to keep her moving at an acceptable pace.

Part way down the corridor, the one holding her stopped and shoved her ahead of them. She stumbled forward and lost her balance, ending up on the floor on one knee. The three Cardassians surrounded her and she braced herself for what was coming.

_Her life in exchange for her world._

One of them slammed his knee into her stomach causing her to double over as pain spread through her abdomen. Then a blow to her ribcage and another and another. With her hands bound behind her back she had no way to protect herself.

One of them struck her across her mouth with something hard and she tasted blood.

Then another grabbed her arm and threw her across the corridor into a bulkhead.

Her shoulder hit hard. Her legs buckled and she slid down the wall to her knees. One of them grasped her hair in a tight fist and lifted. She scrambled to get her feet under her to lessen the pain as hairs were ripped from her scalp.

As soon as she was on her feet the one holding her hair let go and propelled her forward down the corridor. The beating was over, at least for now.

Just around the corner they stopped and passed through a door to a holding area with two empty cells.

One of the Cardassians lowered the forcefield and she felt herself shoved inside. The one that had been guiding her along the corridor pushed her up against the wall with a hand in the middle of her back and roughly unshackled her wrists. Then, with a quick tug, stripped her coat off of her. She heard them toss it onto a desk on the other side of the room.

She didn’t bother to turn around and face them. Her entire body ached and she carefully lowered herself down to sit on the hard bench, fighting the urge to moan in pain.

Two of the Cardassians left while one settled himself at the desk and quickly searched her coat, but the isolinear rod wasn’t there. With the Prophets’ help, Veeso should be far away by now.

Kee propped her elbows on her knees and rested her face in her hands. She took a few minutes to become aware of each part of her body in turn, her ribs and stomach and shoulder hurt but no serious injuries were apparent.

That in itself was worrisome. If they’d been careful not to harm her, it meant that they probably planned to interrogate her. Cold despair crept up her spine. She wasn’t sure if she could go through that again.

But, her life in exchange for her world, she reminded herself once again. She just hoped she could hold out long enough for them to get that rod far away from here.

The rest of the cell would meet Veeso at the rendezvous point by the end of the day, but there would be no rescue mission for her. The priority was clear: verify the rod and destroy it. They’d all agreed. This time she was on her own. Ren would be furious.

Taking a few calming breaths, she lifted her head to look around. She recognized this place. It was the same holding area she and the others had been taken to five years ago. She and Hep were in this cell and Nin and Ikis were in the other.

The fear, the panic, the pain as the Cardassians extracted a tooth for their DNA records. It seemed like so long ago. Like someone else’s life. Could she have ever been that young?

She reached up and touched above her lip to find that her nose had stopped bleeding, so she wiped the blood away with the back of her thumb. Part of her lower lip was swollen and she felt it with her tongue to find that the inside of it had been cut against her teeth.

When she heard the door open, she expected to see Mesak or another officer enter. Instead what she saw made her stomach twist.

Her mother and Edda were being led in with their hands bound behind their backs.

_No._

To the guards she said, “They have nothing to do with this. They don’t know anything!”

She avoided looking at their faces as they were shoved into the other holding cell. A wave of panic was going to overwhelm her.

As the guards that brought them in turned toward the door, she finally lost it. “They don’t know anything!” She screamed at them. “ _Qu'vatlh verengan Ha'DIbaH!_ ” One of the colorful Klingon phrases she’d picked up from Naren over the years.

With her hands shaking she faced away from the other cell to calm herself. It wasn’t just about her anymore, she had to keep control, watch for a way out somehow.

When she finally turned around, acutely aware there was still a Cardassian in the room, she spoke calmly but urgently. “Whatever they ask you, just tell them. Be completely honest. Nothing you know can cause problems for anybody.”

“Keedra, are you alright? How badly are you hurt?” Her mother said through her own fear.

Bloodied nose, swollen lip, she tried to pretend her whole body didn’t hurt. “Don’t worry about me, you’ll be okay if you don’t resist.” She hoped.

“We don’t need your help. Haven’t you done enough already?!” Edda hissed. “They left us alone until you showed up!”

“I’m sorry.” She began pacing, more to keep them from seeing her brimming tears than for herself. “I’m sorry I dragged you into this. I didn’t know where else to go.”

“Everything you people do just makes things worse!”

She forced herself not to reply. He had no idea what they had been dealing with. The horrors they had stopped and were still trying to stop. But there was nothing she could say to convince him otherwise.

She sat back down on the bench while her brother comforted their mother. She might have been able to escape on her own, but now she had them to think about. Anything she did she’d have to move fast or she’d only put their lives in danger.

The silence was deafening, broken only by her mother’s stifled sobs and the occasional creak of the guard’s armor as he shifted in his chair. She couldn’t spot any kind of malfunction or defect in the cell that she could use to her advantage. She may have to wait for them to come for her, but it turned out it didn’t take long.

After a short time, the door opened again. This time the one who came through was the one she expected: Glinn Mesak. Flanked by two guards with phaser rifles.

She refused to acknowledge him, didn’t stand or even look at him.

He stood in front of her cell and read from a pad anyway. “Norvish Keedra. It is my duty to inform you that tomorrow you will be convicted by a Cardassian court of 26 counts of murder (including the two this morning), 34 counts of suspected murder and 18 terrorist acts. You will be sentenced to death immediately following questioning.”

She kept her face neutral. She hadn’t wanted her mother to hear that. She had never kept count of her kills or the actions she was involved in, but at least the numbers were lower than she expected.

“Why have you brought them in? They have nothing to do with this.” She said, finally looking up at him.

“Oh them?” He said, as though he just realized they were there. “We know.”

“Then why?”

“According to your record you’ve never been very, shall we say, _communicative_ during questioning. Consider them an insurance policy.”

Her insides twisted, and she struggled to keep her face neutral even though she wanted to scream, or cry. She could withstand a certain amount of torture, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to stand by while her mother and brother were tortured. She would break, there was no question now.

Mesak continued with condescension. “I hope your silence means that it won’t be necessary to involve them in this ugliness.” To the two guards behind him he said, “Take her first, we’ll give her a chance to do the right thing.”

He turned back to the door and walked out while the guards leveled their rifles at her. One of them lowered the force field and grabbed her by the arm to haul her to her feet. Then he spun her around and pushed her toward the back wall, forcing her to place her hands on the wall to keep from falling.

She avoided glancing into the other cell as the guard from the desk came over to her and, with the two rifles trained on her, he stepped up and bound her wrists behind her back again. After that the two with the rifles led her out of the security office with their weapons pointed at her back.

* * *

The room Kee was led into was not one whose main purpose was interrogation, the ceiling was low, there were pipes and conduits lining the walls and ceiling, it looked like it could be the basement of the camp’s power system. But it didn’t take much space to accommodate the practice of inflicting pain to force information from a person, so the observation didn’t help her.

There were two chairs facing each other, both had wrist and ankle restraints. One was in the center of the room and one off to the side.

There were also a few consoles set into one wall, one of them looked like a communication interface. If it looked like she was going to escape, they could quickly hit the alarm and the place would lock down. Mesak was waiting calmly near one of the chairs. An assistant shoved her into the center chair, unshackled her hands and began binding her to the chair. The two guards that had escorted her from the holding cells made sure she could see their rifles pointed at her head on either side. This would not be her moment to escape.

As soon as his assistant stepped out of the way, the guards backed off but only slightly.

After a lengthy pause, Mesak said, “We know that your little performance this morning was a diversion to allow your associate to slip past our checkpoint. We have patrols out looking for him now. Rest assured, he will be found. And we will obtain what you stole from us.”

Kee didn’t listen to his posturing, she had expected them to guess her motives, and also to send patrols out looking for Veeso. She hoped he made the rendezvous with the rest of the cell before they found him.

Instead of listening, she mapped out the actions she would take the moment she had an opportunity. She had two guards on her, she’d need to disable one of them, use the other as a shield, grab his phaser and take out Mesak, then the assistant would be next. There were almost certainly one or two guards outside the door. If she was lucky a lot of them were out searching the forest for Veeso and there would be only one at the door.

When she tuned back into his monologue, Mesak was saying, “I must admit, my interrogation skills are a bit rusty. I don’t seem to have much opportunity to make use of them in this mud pit.”

“I’ll try to go easy on you.” She sneered at him.

A rolling chuckle flowed out of his throat. “I doubt that very much my dear. All the same, you will have to forgive my lack of refinement in this area. I know interrogators with such a keen style, they carry out the job like a finely-honed instrument. But we’ll just have to muddle our way through with the skills we have.”

Kee nearly rolled her eyes at that while he turned away to pick something up off of a table behind him. No matter how blundering and obvious his intimidation technique, she was certain he could inflict pain just as effectively as his more practiced counterparts.

When he turned back, he had a long, thin rod that had to be twenty centimeters. His assistant barely gave her time to register it before he held her head in place with both hands and pulled it to the side, exposing her neck.

Mesak stepped close while she instinctively fought to protect the vulnerable area, but she was held secure. She felt cold metal against the soft hollow above her clavicle before pain as it cut into her skin.

At first, she tried to stop herself from screaming as he pressed deeper, but the pain forced the sound from her throat.

She waited for it to puncture something vital, but he slipped expertly and painfully past the arteries, tendons and muscles of her neck. Just at the point when she thought she would choke on the pressure of it, it touched something even more painful and her body jerked.

“Ah, ah.” He scolded with his face close to her ear, “Don’t move now or you’ll end up paralyzed. And that won’t help anybody.”

Her body trembled as she struggled to stay still, not even daring to swallow and hardly breathing. What could he be doing?

As if in answer to her unspoken question, he said, “I’m placing a microscopic computer chip directly on the nerves of your spine.” As though the hot chill that shot through her body at that wasn’t enough, he continued. “It will allow me to apply pain sensation to any part of your body.” He slowly extracted the tool, “There we are. That wasn’t so bad.”

He turned away to pick up a control pad from the table and casually tapped out a sequence on it.

Pain immediately surged through her as every pain receptor in her body lit up. A raw scream coursed out of her until her breath was spent and she found she couldn’t take a breath.

When the pain finally ended, she gasped to fill her lungs. She fought to keep her ragged breathing slow and even to calm her racing heart.

“That was the calibration setting.” He said from somewhere outside her sphere of awareness. “Now.” He continued, “Where is your friends’ rendezvous point?” He didn’t bother to give her a chance to answer and tapped another command.

She screamed.

* * *

The pain changed each time so she couldn’t adapt. It felt like her body was burning from the inside out. Then like her flesh was being peeled off, then as though her body was flayed by some unseen blade, and a dozen others she couldn’t begin to describe.

She couldn’t use her usual technique for pain tolerance. Every time she tried, her mind went back to her mother and brother in that holding cell, and the thought of them experiencing this while she had the power to stop it with one little piece of information.

Kee’s screams grew weaker as her body reacted to the pain, her breathing ragged. The restraints bruised and cut her wrists as she pulled against them. Her head lolled to the side as she fought to keep the slightest hold on consciousness.

 _Disable the guards, phaser, Mesak, assistant, door._ She recited her plan in her fading mind.

“I do remember you, by the way. The little troublemaking brat. After we found your father passing information to the Resistance, I did not assume the rest of you were part of it. Then when you took off with that rebel group, I could have had the rest of your family arrested and executed in your place, but I compassionately presumed they weren’t involved and let them be. When one of the boys was involved in that incident last month, still I held back.”

He prepared to tap at the control pad again and her body automatically tensed, but he waited. “Then you show up here yesterday and they give you refuge for the night? Now, that, I can’t overlook.”

“They’ve never done anything against your rules. They’re not part of any of this.” She argued uselessly.

“Well, then, that makes this all your fault, doesn’t it? They’re going to go through everything you’re experiencing now for as long as it takes for you to give me this one piece of information. Your death is already a certainty, but they can still go back to their lives.”

He leaned in so his mouth was next to her ear again. “The rendezvous point. This is your last chance to save your mother and brother from this suffering.”

“I’d tell you, but I’d hate to interrupt this circle jerk you guys have going on.” She sneered through the hoarseness in her voice. “What’s next, the four of you form a centipede while you _bizget_ each other.”

A scowl passed across his face. Just what she’d been going for.

Her laugh came out as more of a choke, but she smiled wickedly up at him. “I’m talking about putting your dicks in each other’s--”

His fist slammed into her jaw, cutting off the rest of the jab. The blow sent her head spinning, she was losing her grip on consciousness. 

Darkness began to close around her vision. She imagined consciousness as a tiny point of light slipping farther and farther away. Somewhere far away she felt her limbs freed of the restraints and body being lifted out of the chair, she reached for the light, pushed her mind toward it.

Go! She screamed at herself in her mind.

Finally, her muscles reacted. She smashed her right elbow into the face of the guard on that side.

Surprised, he staggered back, blood already pouring out of his nose.

She wrapped her left arm around the other guard’s neck, grabbed his shoulder with her other arm and smashed her knee into his gut under his armor. He doubled over, she grabbed his phaser and pulled him toward her, wrapping her arm tight around his neck.

With two shots she took out the assistant. 

The guard with the broken nose recovered and grabbed her from behind, releasing her grip on his partner. She used his weight and momentum to flip him over her and into his counterpart, then took a moment to shoot both of them.

The guard outside the door entered phaser first, but she swung her phaser around and caught him in the chest.

Glinn Mesak, the Cardassian she’d been terrified of since she was a child, the one who’d taken her father, who had approved her death sentence, cowered behind the overturned table. She wanted to make him suffer. For her and for all of the Bajorans he’d tormented, but she remembered that there was no time. Surely the guard outside had already sounded the alarm.

He reached for something on the floor. It wasn’t a weapon, but it was the pad for his torture device. Kee tried to fire at it, destroy it before he could use it, but she wasn’t fast enough. He pressed the controls.

Kee dropped to her knees as her bones felt like they were being crushed inside of her. Focus narrowing in, everything else in the room seemed to go blank.

Gritting her teeth against the pain, she forced her mind to recognize that it wasn’t real. Her body was fine, her arms and legs would still work if she could just make them. She focused on the phaser in her hand, she could still use it, no matter what her mind was telling her.

Mesak was well hidden but a conduit ran across the ceiling above him. Gambling that it contained something volatile, she took aim through the agony and shot it. The metal glowed for a moment, then exploded sending burning plasma and shrapnel through the small room.

Mesak and the control device were incinerated instantly with only a yelp of surprise.

Kee ducked and covered her face but a piece of metal from the conduit flew through the air and cut a deep gash into her arm. No time to tend to it, she grabbed a second phaser and rushed out the door, checking both ways, retraced the rout back to the security office.

* * *

Jora sat with her head in her hands. She had thought the screaming was unbearable. But now that it had stopped, she found the silence was much worse. Her whole body shook. Her son tried to comfort her, but the silence was too horrifying to bear.

Over and over during the last five years she’d thought her daughter was dead only to find that she wasn’t. Over and over her heart broke. But every time she learned Keedra was still alive, the joy was tainted with the sorrow that she was still out there, being hunted down by Cardassians. To be tortured or killed. And now the former was happening, maybe the latter already.

She wasn’t naïve, she knew that the Cardassians were skilled at interrogation and seldom let their victim die too soon. She wasn’t sure what was worse, the thought of Keedra already dead or continuing to be tortured for… what… days? And her beloved Edda, too? Tears flowed freely as she buried her face in her hands.

She recognized the Cardassian guarding them. His name was Kodic, she thought. He and some others were the terrors of the camp, grabbing women off the street and assaulting them whenever they saw fit. She’d tended to some of their victims herself.

At the sound of Kodic shifting in his seat, she looked up to see an alert flashing on the console. He reached up to press a button and a mechanical sound signaled that the door was latched.

A moment later, they heard a noise at the door. Weapons fire? Was Keedra’s cell coming for them?

Jora wiped the tears from her face, not quite ready to hope for rescue. Then the sound of a manual override on the other side of the door. Kodic dipped down behind his desk and aimed his phaser at the door.

The door opened, but no one immediately came through. Then, Jora saw Keedra, her left arm outstretched, pointing a phaser into the room. Even before she had a line of sight to Kodic, she began firing continuously, leaving a trail of burn marks on the wall as she moved into the room. Time seemed to slow as Jora’s mind raced to grasp what she was seeing.

It was hard to believe that it had only been a matter of hours since she’d last seen her. Her outstretched arm was covered in blood from a deep wound on her bicep. There were dark circles under her eyes and her hair had come loose in a mess around her shoulders. Her wrists were bruised and bloodied. She wore a cold, focused expression on her face. Blood that had trickled from the corner of her lip at some point had barely started to crust over.

The phaser quit, she lowered it and raised another in her right hand without missing a beat. She continued around the corner, pinning Kodic behind his desk.

Just as she reached the point where he could see her, he fired back at her.

Keedra pulled back behind the corner and slid down low against the wall, flinching at the brightness of it.

Another shot came at her from somewhere in the hallway, barely missing her.

Keedra whipped her head around, glanced for an instant at the phaser in her left hand and fired back toward the source. Two shots, then a third, then she turned back to Kodic who had started to come out from behind his desk.

Jora didn’t know much about combat, but she could tell Keedra was in serious trouble, stuck between two enemies. Yet there was nothing she could do to help, even if she hadn’t been locked away.

Another blast came from the hallway that barely skimmed past her nose. Jora thought she detected a trace of panic in her face, but it was gone instantly as she turned and fired back until they heard a cry of alarm.

Turning back to Kodic, she edged out of her hiding place and fired both weapons in a vicious assault. One shot struck him in the shoulder, sending him tumbling back, then she stepped out fully into the room and fired one more time into his chest.

She tucked the phasers into the back of her belt and moved quickly to the desk. It occurred to Jora that she hadn’t looked at her or Edda this entire time.

She stepped over Kodic’s dead body as though it were nothing but a piece of debris and bent to pull a short isolinear rod out of her shoe. After placing the rod into the console and entering a command the door closed and latched again.

When Keedra finally spoke, her voice was course, confirming, as if there had been any doubt, that it had been her screaming before. “This rod gives me access to some of the computer systems, I’m activating all of the force fields in all of the corridors. That should give us a few minutes.” She continued working the controls and the force field on their holding cell deactivated.

“Grab our coats, would you?” Her voice cracked again.

While Edda picked up their three coats from the corner where the soldiers had piled them, Jora rushed to her daughter’s side, unsure how to help. “You’re hurt.”

Keedra glanced at her arm. “It’s fine.”

It was definitely not, she would have to press the issue later. “What are you doing now?”

“I don’t have access to shut down the sensors, so I’m uploading a virus from the isolinear rod that will create sensor ghosts to mask our signatures.” Her fingers flew across the controls with practiced speed. “When I initiate the program, we’ll have to move out quickly. Most of the Cardassians stationed here are already out in the forest looking for Veeso, so we shouldn’t have to deal with too many in here.”

She stopped working at the console and bent down to pull some pieces of equipment off of Kodic’s uniform, seemingly indifferent to his unseeing stare or the burned flesh in his chest.

It hit Jora almost physically that she’d just watched her kill twice with no reaction. Again. What had the Resistance done to her? Last night she’d had the feeling she didn’t know her very well anymore, now she realized that she didn’t know her at all.

Stashing the equipment in her pockets, Keedra stood up. “Ready?”

Both of them nodded, she pulled out the phaser, tapped a few more controls and said, “Let’s go.”

Lastly, she grabbed the isolinear rod as she rounded the corner of the desk.

“Stay close.” She whispered as the door opened.

Jora and her son followed Keedra closely. 

* * *

They made their way through the corridors, winding a seemingly random path, backing into rooms or side hallways when they heard Cardassians approaching.

“Why don’t you just shoot them?” Edda hissed in Keedra’s ear.

“If I fire a phaser, they’ll know exactly which sensor readings are really us.” She whispered, her voice barely audible.

They stopped in front of a closed door. Edda whispered again, “Do you even know where we are?”

“Corridor two, section fifteen, outer sweep.” She said softly, distracted by entering commands into one of the devices she had taken from the security office. When she finished whatever she was doing she looked up at them, “This door leads outside, beyond the fence.”

“What about the sensor grid?” Jora asked.

Keedra seemed confused for a moment, “The grid’s been down for months.”

Without the sensor grid anyone could have slipped out of the camp and into the woods to relative freedom almost at any time, but none of them had known it was no longer functioning and no one would have been willing to try it either.

“Once I open the door, they’ll know exactly where we are and we have to run. This,” she held up the device she’d been working on, “will emit a scattering field that will confuse their sensor sweeps. But as long as someone can see us, we’re vulnerable, so we need to make it into the tree line as quickly as possible.”

Keedra waved the device in front of the door’s control panel and it opened. An alarm immediately sounded and she grabbed Jora by the arm and pulled her outside.

She wouldn’t have been able to keep up with her daughter, except that Keedra pulled her along the rocky ground and steadied her when rocks slipped out from under her feet. Edda was able to manage on his own, but barely. Just before they reached the tree line, phaser fire hit the ground next to them. Once inside the forest Keedra wound them through the trees and underbrush.

She stopped them behind a large boulder with a fallen tree leaning on top of it and listened with her phaser in her hand.

Cardassian voices, not far away. She waved them in a direction away from the voices. They moved quietly, but not quietly enough.

Phaser fire passed by Jora’s face.

“Down!” Keedra shouted as she fired back. “Go!” Firing behind her as they ran. “You two keep going. I’ll draw them off that way.” She pointed in the opposite direction.

“No, we won’t leave you!”

“Just go. I can move more quickly by myself.”

Without waiting for more objections, she hurried in the direction she had indicated, firing at the Cardassians as she ran. They shot back, tree trunks exploded behind her when hit by phaser fire.

“Come on, Mother.” Edda pulled Jora away.

The weapons fire got farther and farther away, then finally stopped. More terrifying silence. Still, Edda compelled her to keep going.

“We have to go back.” She insisted, “What if they captured her again!”

“If so, we can’t do anything about it.” He said and kept her moving.

Keedra suddenly appeared before them out of the brush without a sound. “Come on! Keep going!” She led them at a fast pace through the forest. Too fast, Jora couldn’t keep up, and Edda was also starting to slow down. Her legs burned at first, then her strength began to give out like her knees would buckle at each step.

“We have to rest.” She told her. “And I have to look at your arm.”

The cut on her arm was bleeding badly enough that it had run down her arm and was dripping off her fingertips.

“Not yet. There are a lot of patrols already out here looking for Veeso.” Her partner’s name?

She did stop a few times to listen and visually scan the area, but not enough for them to rest. She just kept urging them on. After a long time, they came to the edge of the forest, farther away from the camp than Jora had ever been since being moved there when she was young when the Cardassians had seized her family’s property.

They reached an area of cleared land with a tall fence, sensor posts and security cameras. Beyond the fence was a wide strip of empty land that stretched to the horizon on each side. On the other side of the strip another fence and another cleared area.

Keedra stopped them just inside the forest and walked parallel to the fence. Apparently seeking some kind of marker, finally, she brought them out to the fence.

“We can cross here. The sensors and cameras have been modified to return false readings. But we have to get to the other side and back into cover as quickly as possible.”

“I don’t know if I can.” She wanted to suggest that they go without her, but she knew they wouldn’t.

“They don’t know we can cross, so they won’t be looking for us on the other side. At least not right away. As soon as we’re across and away from the fence, we can rest. I promise.”

Without waiting for confirmation, Keedra pulled the bottom of the fence up where it had been cut along the ground and waved them through. She followed and compelled them to run across the uneven rocky ground.

The muscles in her legs were shaking and began to give out on some steps. Between the two of them, the siblings helped their mother along and neared the other side.

For the last little bit of distance Keedra sped up her pace, pulling far in front of them right up to the fence as though she would run into it. She suddenly dropped down and slid, feet first under another cut at the bottom of the fence, then held it up for them to crawl under.

They hurried into the forest again and away from the fence.

Finally, Keedra relaxed noticeably and selected a place for them to rest. “Just for a few minutes.”

Jora took the opportunity to insist on looking at the cut on her arm. “Let me see it.”

Reluctantly Keedra sat down and pulled her arm out of her coat, shivering as the cold air seeped in.

“I’ll need some water.” Jora said.

Keedra popped the casing off of the device she had used to interfere with the sensors. “There’s a stream that way.” She must have been here before.

Jora handed the casing to Edda, wordlessly asking him to get some water while she pressed gently around the wound.

The cut was about the length of her hand and deep enough to bleed badly, but it didn’t look like it had gone down into the muscle. When he returned with the water she stretched Keedra’s arm away from her body and dribbled the water over the cut to wash some of the blood and debris away. Keedra winced only slightly.

“I’ll need to sew this up. There’s a needle and thread in my coat.” She began digging in her pockets for the aid pack she kept there.

For the first time that day Keedra actually laughed. “Of course there is.”

She also had a few strips of clean cloth. If she carried much more than that the Cardassians would have confiscated them one of the times she’d been randomly searched. “I don’t have anything to dull the pain or disinfect it.” She said by way of apology.

“It’s fine, just do what you need to do.” Keedra said and she barely winced when the needle pierced her skin.

When Jora had tied off the first few stitches, she spoke again without looking up. “They were going to torture us to make you talk, weren’t they?”

Keedra hesitated, not making eye contact, finally she said quietly, “Yes.”

She’d known that was their plan, but with confirmation of it she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. Somewhere behind her, she heard Edda begin pacing and she tied a few more stitches before asking her next question. “Was that... were you…” She had a hard time forming the words, “That was you that we heard, wasn’t it?”

This time Keedra turned her face away, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“And the scar on your back?” She’d seen part of a deep scar extending beyond the edge of her shirt earlier.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” She repeated.

Jora continued to stitch the edges of skin together. Some people had a hard time with the sight of a needle piercing flesh, but it had never bothered her any more than sewing a torn piece of fabric. The important thing to her was to help prevent infection or blood loss. The little bit of natural squeamishness paled in comparison. 

She glanced at Keedra, recalling for a moment the time she’d stitched up a cut on her eyebrow when she was six years old. She had peered up at her with those soft green eyes rimmed with red from crying. Her brothers had coerced her into some reckless stunt. Keedra had fallen and they’d been forced to come to her, though Jora had never been able to get a truthful answer out of any of them about what had actually happened. All she knew was that only a week later they were at it again and Keedra nearly broke her arm.

Neither of them spoke again until after Jora had finished and wrapped the wound.

Finally, Keedra said, “Look, I’m sorry you’re involved in this.”

She was about to tell her daughter that she would rather be “involved” than not know whether she was even alive, but Edda spoke before she could.

“We were fine until you showed up!” He said harshly.

Keedra’s eyes narrowed at her brother, “I had no choice. Our mission couldn’t fail, a lot of lives are on the line.”

“That’s always the excuse, isn’t it? The noble resistance has to take actions for the greater good, regardless of how it effects the rest of us! No matter how many of us suffer because of them.” He shot back.

“We’re trying to free our world!” She launched to her feet.

He stepped up and glowered down at her. “All you’re doing is picking fights with the Cardassians that get more of us killed.”

Even though he was a full head taller, she lifted her chin to meet his face almost nose to nose. “We do what we do to save lives. They’re the ones killing our people!”

Jora could see her clenching her fists and, for a terrifying moment, she thought she would hit him.

He either didn’t notice or didn’t care. “The facts don’t lie, Kee! Every time there’s a Resistance attack, the spoonheads come down on the rest of us! For every one of them you kill, they kill ten of us!”

Hot rage flashed across her face, “So what would you have us do? If you’re such an expert at strategy, what do you think we should do? Just give up? Let them slaughter us?”

“Let them have what they want. A bunch of ore and some resources aren’t worth the loss of Bajoran lives. Once the Cardassians have what they want from us, they’ll leave. Without all of the bloodshed!”

Keedra gaped, speechless for a moment. “You have no idea what you’re talking about!”

Jora moved between them, “What do you mean?” She interrupted, grateful for a chance to break up the argument.

With effort, Keedra tore her glare away from her brother and lowered her tone. “They don’t intend to leave any of us alive. They’ve been developing a variation of the ulcartic virus. Slow-acting, highly contagious and engineered to affect only Bajorans. It’s one-hundred percent lethal. No antidote. Their plan was to release the virus once they leave. The entire population would be dead in a matter of months, and they’d claim to the rest of the galaxy that their presence here had been the only thing keeping us from wiping ourselves out.”

Jora stared at her, trying to comprehend what she had said.

Edda didn’t believe her, “And why would they go to all the trouble to do that?”

“Because once they’re gone, they know the Federation will find out exactly what’s been going on here. And they’ll come down on them hard. But if they leave no witnesses, it’ll be that much harder to piece it all together.”

“That’s terrorist propaganda. It’s an excuse for more violence.” He said with a dismissive gesture.

“It’s true. It was being developed at a research facility in Dakeen.” She began to raise her voice again.

Edda raised his arms as though she had proved his point. “The one that was bombed last month? There were innocent Bajorans there!”

Keedra looked like she was about to lose control, “Those people were already infected! They were as good as dead!” Her voice wavered, “If they had tried to save them, they would have risked releasing the virus.”

“They only say that now to cover up what they did.”

“I saw the research myself!” Despite her anger, tears welled in Keedra’s eyes. “The cold analysis of every moment of their suffering!”

“Research can be faked.”

Instead of responding, Keedra turned away in exasperation and let out a surprisingly creative series of curse words. Many of which she didn’t know she knew.

Jora stepped in again before Edda could continue escalating the argument. “And this has something to do with the reason you were in the refugee camp yesterday?”

Keedra softened as she turned to her mother, “Yes… the Cardassians were able to smuggle four copies of the viral genome out of the facility before it was destroyed. They were sent secretly in different directions across the planet. Many cells have had to coordinate to track them. Our contact intercepted one of them and we picked it up yesterday in the camp.” She turned to Edda, “That’s why I risked coming home last night, why I allowed myself to be arrested to make sure Veeso got out of the camp without being searched.”

“If it’s so dangerous, why not just destroy it immediately?” he asked.

“We have to verify that it’s not a decoy.” She sighed, giving up, “Forget it, you’re not going to believe anything I say. We’ve still got a ways to go and I’d like to cover more ground before it gets dark.” She walked away, expecting them to follow.

Jora did and Edda eventually fell in line behind her.

* * *

Edda had fallen silent, but Kee knew she hadn’t changed his mind.

The silence was enough of a compromise, though. She thought back to their childhood when the three of them had played together. Edda wasn’t exactly kind to his little sister, but as long as Kersht was there, he could keep the peace. She pushed the thought from her mind. She’d lost one brother in a pointless tragedy, and she’d lost her other brother to his hatred and resentment toward the cause to which she had dedicated her life. Tears threatened to fill her eyes but she pushed the pain away. As usual.

Her mother broke the silence, “Where are you taking us? To your group?”

Kee shook her head, “No, they’re at least five kelepates back that way.” She waved her hand behind them.

“So, where?”

“To a safe house.”

When the resistance had rescued her and the other three, they had planned to take them all to this same place, but she and the others had insisted on joining them instead. Since then Kee had made this trip and delivered at least a dozen people there. Some were still there, some had been moved to other secure locations, a few had come back and joined the cell. She’d decided it was the best option for keeping Edda and her mother safe.

“For how long?”

“Indefinitely.”

Her mother stopped. “’Indefinitely’?” she repeated.

Kee turned. “I’m sorry, you can’t go back to the camp. Ever.”

Her brother erupted again. “Like _fire_ we can’t!”

“I mean it, Edda. This is the only safe place for you right now, and if I take you there you can’t leave.”

“So we’ll be prisoners there?” 

“No. But we can’t allow you to leave because we can’t risk the Cardassians finding out what the place really is. If you’re not going to stay, I can’t take you there.”

“Just because I disagree with what the resistance does, doesn’t mean I’m a collaborator.” He said with disgust.

Kee tamped down the urge to snap back at him and tried to speak calmly. “If I take you there and you leave, eventually the Cardassians will find out who you are. They will assume you’re with the resistance. They will take you to an interrogation center and you will be tortured until you give them information. Any information that will make it stop. That information cannot be the identity of the safe house!”

“I can handle myself.”

His condescending tone finally made her snap. “You have no idea what they’re capable of, Kersht!” Realizing she had just called him by his brother’s name she turned away and cursed and corrected herself, “Edda!” Tears flowed to her eyes this time without being able to stop them.

She heard her mother speaking softly to him, “Please, Edda, just come with me. Do it for me.” Then her hand was on Kee’s shoulder. “He won’t leave, I can’t let that happen to him. Thank you for what you’ve done for us today.”

She wanted to turn around and fall into her mother’s arms and let go of everything she’d been holding back for so long. Instead she pulled her emotions under control and said, “I don’t want to approach the house after dark, we’ll find a place to spend the night.

* * *

They had slept in a small clearing surrounded by a thick ring of trees. Jora was sure Keedra hadn’t slept much if at all. She had a Cardassian comm unit set to passively scan for signals and had said that would alert them if any patrols approached, so it would be safe to sleep. But at the very least she’d been awake when Jora closed her eyes and when she had woken up.

Early in the morning they’d found some hava berries to eat. Edda was giving his sister the silent treatment, which seemed to be just fine with her. They traveled for most of the morning at a moderately slow pace through the thick brush and across icy meltwater streams, seeming to switch back from time to time.

Keedra halted them with a wave of her hand. “Wait here.” She said and took a few more steps forward toward a thicket of tall _goval_ bushes and thorny _orzu_ vines.

Jora recognized the combination of plants as one that had been used for generations to create natural impenetrable barriers. Together, _goval_ and _orzu_ were so tough even most modern equipment couldn’t cut through.

Through an almost undetectable passage through the plants, a phaser rifle came into view. “Enjoying your stroll through the woods?” The Bajoran man holding the phaser said as a second one appeared.

“Not so much, the _esani_ aren’t flowering.” Keedra told him.

There were no _esani_ in this area, flowering or otherwise.

“You just have to look a little harder.” He replied.

“I never seem to see them anyway, they’re so hard to find.” She said automatically.

Satisfied, the men lowered their phasers and stepped back to allow them to pass. The man who hadn’t spoken smiled, “Good to see you again, Kee.” He held his arm out to her, bent at the elbow.

“You too.” She said and touched her forearm to his in some kind of greeting then beckoned them to follow her as she ducked through the opening.

After they were past the checkpoint, Jora asked, “If they know you, why the code?”

“There are different responses if I were being followed or coerced.” She said, seeming to follow some invisible pathway through the brush. “And they have alternate responses incase they’ve been compromised somehow.”

When they pushed their way through the last cluster of vegetation they came out into a huge clearing. To their right was a massive house, a mansion, really, painted pure white surrounded by meticulously manicured grounds. All of the plants had been neatly trimmed back for the winter.

In the other direction there was a large warehouse next to a small farm with rows of winter vegetables, and empty rows where summer vegetables and fruit-bearing plants could be placed in the spring. Several people moved through the farm in heavy coats, tending plants and checking the soil. The hedge was thick and tall all the way around the property except for a gated entrance in front of the house.

As the three fugitives walked across the spongy groundcover that covered most of the clearing, a man came out of the house toward them. When he reached them he turned to walk with them. Without any greeting he spoke to Keedra, “You know that we don’t have any more rooms.”

“I know. But I need you to take them.” She said firmly without a response from the man.

Reaching the house, he led them inside a large, warm dining room with a long tables and enough seats for easily 30 or more people. The man stopped and stood in front of Keedra without looking at Jora or Edda. “Kee…”

“Let me talk to Lorbi about it.”

The man relented, “You’re going to pull in that favor?”

“If that’s what it takes to keep them safe.”

“Alright, but no more rooms means no more rooms.” The man started to walk away, but turned back, “You look like hell, by the way.”

Keedra let out a short laugh, “Thanks.”

Jora had tried to ignore how rough Keedra looked. Her blond hair was dark with dirt and dried blood. The swelling on her lip had gone down, but a dark bruise was still there. Plus, the one on her cheekbone and Prophets only knew what other injuries she hiding from her.

After the man had walked away a little girl, no more than six-years-old hurried up to them carrying a tray with three glasses of water. Keedra smiled at her, “Hello Tahlla!” She said in exaggerated tones that people often use with children.

“Hi Kee!” She said in her high-pitched child voice, holding the tray out to them.

They each took a glass and drank. The cold water was cleaner than anything they’d had for a long time. Clean and quenching, especially after their harrowing experience.

Keedra hugged the little girl and thanked her, then the girl hurried away with the empty glasses.

“Everybody at this place has a job. It may look like a luxurious life here, but it’s hard work.” She nodded back toward the door where the girl had left. “Tahlla’s parents were members of our cell, before my time. They brought her here as a baby. They died a long time ago; this is the only family she’s ever known.”

Another door opened, interrupting Keedra’s explanation. A man in vedic’s robes walked toward them. In contrast to what he wore and the serene expression on his face, his build was tall and wide as though he’d be more apt to be a soldier than a man of the Prophets.

He greeted Keedra warmly with a genuine hug. “It’s good to see you, Kee.”

“You too Lorbi.”

After he’d pulled away from Keedra he regarded the other two.

“This is my mother, Jora, and my brother, Edda.” She introduced them.

He smiled at them warmly, but spoke to Keedra. “Ah, this is why they’re so important to you.”

“And to you.” She argued, “My mother has functioned as a medic in their refugee camp for many years. It seems to me that you’re the only one here with any medical experience. It must be hard to keep up.” Making a case for their admittance.

Jora jumped in, “Actually, speaking of that, if you have supplies, Keedra has an injury on her arm that I wasn’t able to disinfect on the way here.”

Lorbi looked between the two, “You’re right, of course, Kee. Let’s talk more while we see what your mother has done.” He led them through a door deeper into the house.

* * *

As medics often do, Lorbi and Kee’s mother talked between themselves while examining her arm as though she were not there. “We don’t have a working dermal regenerator right now, so we’ll leave the stitches in place.” He said, prodding gently with his thumb at the swollen, red skin around the wound. “It’s good work, though.”

“Thank you,” Her mother said. “I’ve had to do it a fair share of times back in the camp.”

He waved a glowing, humming disinfection wand over the area and Kee tried not to let her relief show on her face. She’d known she would have to convince him, but between her mother’s usefulness to them and the favor Lorbi owed her, she had been hopeful.

“There’s an area back there where you can wash up.” Lorbi said as he wrapped her arm with clean gauze. “After that, we’ll show you around and figure out how to rearrange things for your stay.”

Kee took his hands to emphasize how much she appreciated his choice, “Thank you.”

“Now we’re even.” He said to her.

A lopsided smile crept onto her lips, “Until next time, anyway.”

As he left the room to make arrangements, he turned, “I don’t know, with your family here now, I think anything you do from here on out is a given.” He winked as he slipped out of the room.

Kee couldn’t help but laugh. She always enjoyed coming here and seeing him. They found the wash area in the back. She washed the dried blood off of her left arm and the dirt from the rest of her exposed skin, gently rinsing her tender wrists. It felt good to clean up a little, she spent a large portion of her life covered in dirt. Living in the forest, there was usually no point in getting too clean. After her face and hands were clean, she pulled her hair back, twisted it around and found an elastic band to hold it together in a messy bun.

Edda still hadn’t said a word to her all day. She wasn’t sure if they’d ever resolve their disagreements, but for now, at least, he’d be safe. They’d probably want to put him to work in either the warehouse or on the farm, whichever suited his skills and interests. It suddenly occurred to her that she didn’t actually know what his skills and interests were anymore.

Her mother finally spoke up as she was drying her hands, “What exactly do they do here?”

“I’m sure Lorbi will tell you about it once you’re settled.”

In actuality, she avoided knowing too much about what occurred here. All she really knew was that warehouse in the back manufactured some kind of highly sensitive and technical equipment that the Cardassians required. When she had first been told about it, it had sounded too much like collaboration to her. But in reality, they used the Cardassian’s dependence on the equipment to their advantage.

Not only did they shelter people the Resistance wanted to keep safe and build a backdoor into all of the tech, which is what Joial used in his programming to get in, they also kept a stash of weapons hidden for them.

In addition to that they employed over a hundred other people from the surrounding area, paying them a fair wage and providing proper working conditions. Those people were then able to feed their families. The small farm also gave the residents an independent and self-sustaining food supply. It was a system Kee was proud of and she would do anything to protect them.

Her mother spoke again, not seeming to notice that Kee’s inner thoughts had run on. “You trust him.” It was a statement, not question, but she answered anyway.

“Absolutely.” She said and walked with them back out to the common area.

* * *

Jora lost track of Keedra. At some point she had slipped away without the rest of them noticing. Lorbi had led Jora and Edda around the massive house, indicating the common areas and showing them a single room where she and her son could stay.

They came back to the dining area where they had first entered and he showed them over to a large window that looked out on the back part of the property. He explained to them the general purpose and function of the warehouse and farm, but didn’t go into detail about what was manufactured there.

By then it was nearing evening and she watched small groups of people exiting the warehouse, at least a hundred of them. She had seen people leaving Cardassian manufacturing facilities exhausted, dirty and despondent, but these people were just the opposite.

Most of the workers from the warehouse walked past the house and out the front gate, but a few entered the dining room, along with a handful of people from the farm and Keedra finally appeared through a doorway in the back.

“Where were you?” Jora asked her when she came near.

“I wanted to say hello to a few people.” She looked mockingly annoyed at Lorbi, “I poked my head into the kitchen for a moment and got drafted! Yeyril gave me a job then disappeared for _an hour_!”

Lorbi chuckled, “That was your own fault.”

As Jora enjoyed Keedra’s genuine smile she realized that she smelled food cooking and remembered that she had barely eaten in the last few days, even less than normal.

Several people, including little Talla, brought food for everyone, then sat down themselves. When Jora found a place, she took a look at the food that had been brought. More food than she had seen in a very long time.

“This looks wonderful. It’s been so long since we’ve had fresh vegetables!”

Lorbi asked the Prophets’ blessing on the food and the low rumble of conversation filled the hall as they began to eat.

A woman seated on Lorbi’s far side leaned forward to get her attention. “You must be Jora!”

“Yes.” She said hesitantly.

“I’m Rahnah. Joial’s wife.”

“Wife! When did this happen?”

The woman smiled, “A few months ago. Lorbi performed the ceremony for us.”

Suddenly a thought occurred to her, “Is Joial here?”

“Oh, no. I haven’t seen him since.” A flicker of sadness crossed her face and she glanced at Keedra. “I do get messages from him from time to time.”

Jora turned to her daughter, “Why didn’t you tell me when I asked how he was doing?”

That guarded manner about her emerged again. “I can’t just go around telling people about her. We have to be very careful about our families. Besides, I said he was ‘fine’. I don’t know how much more ‘fine’ you could be.”

Jora huffed at that, but turned back to Rahnah. “How did you meet?”

“Some of the people in my village were trying to form a Resistance cell. Joial and Kee’s cell was helping them and I was their contact person.”

“It must not have turned out well if you’re here now.”

She lowered her eyes with a sad shrug. “The Cardassians found out about it and started executing people. The first time I met Kee, she was rushing me away from them with phaser fire flying back and forth over our heads. She and Joial saved my life.” 

Jora eyed Keedra, wondering how much more she hadn’t told her. Keedra either didn’t notice, or ignored the scrutiny and kept eating, mostly focusing on the food but occasionally responding to a friendly greeting. She had to admit, just seeing her children enjoy an adequate meal for once made their trip her worth it.

“Hey, Kee.” Someone called from far down the long table. “The Laierka detention center. Was that you guys?”

“You know I can’t talk about that.” She said, but the smirk on her lips told them what they wanted to know.

It seemed that some of those seated at that end of the table didn’t know about the incident and the man who had asked began telling the tale. Jora strained to listen in, but Lorbi spoke up and drowned them out.

“So, how’d you get the cut on your arm?” He asked Keedra.

She shrugged, “Shot a plasma conduit. Shrapnel from the explosion got me.”

The conversation at the other end of the table was instantly forgotten as Jora’s attention snapped to her daughter.

“A plasma conduit? Are you insane?” Lorbi asked with more rebuke than surprise in his voice.

“Maybe.” She joked. “It was worth it, though. Caught Mesak in the blast.” Keedra said casually, shrugging again.

Jora had to process that information for a moment, “Wait, Glinn Mesak is dead?”

“Yes, that’s generally what happens when you’re incinerated by superheated plasma.” She said with an unbelievably flat tone.

Her daughter’s cold attitude aside, she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The cruel overseer who’d terrorized their refugee camp since she was a child was dead. And Keedra hadn’t thought to tell her?

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

“It didn’t come up.” She said around a mouthful of food.

“It didn’t come up?” Jora repeated much more harshly than she’d intended.

“I didn’t escape by beating him at a pillow fight?”

Jora didn’t know what to say, her mouth only gaped open. She’d seen her daughter kill the guard in the security office without remorse. Had she really thought that was the only one? But Mesak himself? “How could you not have told me?”

Keedra dropped her fork noisily onto her plate. “What? You want a list?!” She’d hit a nerve, but Keedra closed her eyes and reigned in her anger. “I’m sorry.” She said softly.

Jora let the issue drop quietly.

A few minutes of silence passed and Keedra said to Lorbi, “After this I want to go down to the weapons cache and resupply before I head out.”

Lorbi shrugged, “Do what you need to do, they’re your weapons.”

“You’re leaving already?” Jora asked.

“That’s the way this works.”

“But can’t you at least stay until morning? I thought you didn’t want to travel at night?”

Keedra swallowed her bite and looked at her before responding, “I didn’t want to travel with you at night. I’ll be fine by myself.” Keedra turned away to keep eating and finally turned back when Jora was still silent. “We have certain procedures.”

Jora glanced around at the 30 or so people she didn’t yet know but would be living with for an uncertain amount of time. She didn’t want to get into another argument with her daughter in front of them. “Just don’t leave without me knowing it. Ok?”

“Ok.” Keedra quickly finished her meal and left without another word.

Edda continued to remain sullen, but he did at least seem to appreciate the meal. He eventually left too, presumably up to their living space. 

Jora had eaten slowly to give herself time to appreciate the meal. When she finally finished, she thanked Lorbi and moved to a part of the room where she could watch for Kee.

She scolded herself for pushing Keedra so hard about Mesak just when it seemed like she was starting to open up to her. For the last five years, she’d dreamed about seeing her girl again, being able to reconnect with her. She thought she’d been prepared for how much she would have changed, but this was nothing like she expected.

No matter how hard she wanted to believe that this was the same Keedra that she’d held in her arms as a baby, the Keedra that had held onto her fingers as she learned to walk, the one that sat, fascinated, as she taught her about the love of the Prophets, the reality was that it wasn’t. The resistance had taken that sweet, stubborn, impressionable girl who had so much potential and turned her into a coldblooded killer.

The thought felt like she’d been hit in the stomach and tears poured from her eyes just as she heard footsteps in the empty room behind her. She quickly wiped her eyes and turned to see Keedra.

Her hand rested casually on a phaser rifle that hung from her shoulder. She had seen Cardassian soldiers with them many times, but it seemed strange and oversized for her daughter’s slight build. She also carried a backpack filled with supplies and equipment that Jora couldn’t even guess at. The thought of her going back out there, needing the weapons she carried made Jora’s heart ache as they walked outside in silence.

“Can’t you just stay for one night?” She begged.

Keedra stopped in the middle of the clearing and faced her. “With a record like mine, every minute I stay here puts a bullseye on this place.”

Jora felt tears well in her eyes. She’d heard the Cardassians’ list of her daughter’s crimes and had hoped she would dispute them, or at least insist that the numbers weren’t so horribly high, but after what she’d witnessed, she had to believe it.

She softened when she saw her mother’s tears, “Look, I’m sorry. But this is the life I lead.”

“Then don’t. You can choose to stay, and not just for tonight. _Stay_ with us.”

She shook her head, “I have people waiting for me. Counting on me. Bajor needs every one of us. I don’t have the luxury of choice.”

She started to walk away toward the hedge, but after a few steps turned and came back. She wrapped her free arm tightly around Jora’s neck, and said in a choked whisper, “I love you.”

Without making eye contact, she turned away and walked quickly to the edge of the clearing and disappeared into the forest.

Jora covered her face with her hands and finally let go of the tears she’d been holding back and allowed herself to sob.

She hadn’t heard anyone coming up behind her, but suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up, it was Lorbi.

“She’s one of the toughest, smartest and most courageous people I know. You should be proud of her.”

Jora had recognized all of those things over the last two days but also a callous darkness that terrified her.

“The Prophets are with her, Jora.” He added.

She just nodded and begged the Prophets that she would see her again.


	12. Mission: Mine

_9370, Bajor (2368, Earth Calendar)_

Kee had slept in a bed every night for nearly a week, more than she had during her entire life up until then. She’d spent her days helping around the village, the biggest job around here this time of year was preserving and setting aside food for the winter. It was the closest to a normal life that she’d ever experienced and she couldn’t help the recurring thought that Traie would have loved this and her stomach twisted every time.

The Cardassians had been coming to villages all over Joralla for the past few months and abducting random groups of people. Nobody knew where they were being taken, but none had ever returned. The members of Ren’s cell, which now included those from Prortu’s since her death, were posing as locals in one of the villages, betting that next time the Cardassians came, at least one or two of them would be taken. If that happened, they could activate an implant they all carried that would leave a trail of tritonium isotopes for the others to follow.

The rising sun had begun to light the inside of the small room, but not quite enough to wake her. In her still-dreamy mind she thought she felt a warm body pressed against her back, an arm draped across her hip and Traie’s breath on her neck as his lips brushed against her skin. She could almost see the playful quirk of his lips.

Sudden shouting outside woke her and she turned to grasp at the fading memory of a presence beside her. She stared at the empty space next to her with an ache in her heart that she couldn’t bear. But before she could think more about it, the door to the little cottage was kicked in by a heavy black boot.

Without giving her a chance to get up, the Cardassian grabbed her out of the bed and dragged her barefoot into the dusty street toward a small cluster of other Bajorans and shoved her to her knees.

The sun had just begun to crest the far-off hills, washing the street with glaring shafts of light that blinded Kee so that she couldn’t even identify the people next to her.

With more shouting and struggling, people were added to the group until there had to be at least several dozen of them. Through the blinding light, Kee managed to see a pair of Cardassian boots walk slowly around the group. Counting them? And when he was satisfied with the number, he gave orders to move them into the personnel skimmer.

With phasers pointed at them the group shuffled toward the vehicle and Kee felt the hardpack of the road turn into the cold diamond plate metal of the ramp.

The light outside was too bright and the inside too dim, Kee couldn’t see who else was with her. Part of her hoped the others from her cell hadn’t been taken, but she selfishly didn’t want to do this alone. After some determined number of people had been brought onboard, the ramp lifted to seal them in.

Once the ramp had locked out the last sliver of light, they were plunged into complete darkness. The entire procedure had taken only a few minutes. No one dared speak, the only sound was the shaky, terrified breathing of the people around her.

Quickly, before the skimmer lifted off, she felt along her collarbone to locate a tiny, artificial bump, her implant, and tapped it twice. By design, the isotopes were undetectable unless someone were to specifically scan for them. She could only trust that the implant was working properly. If not, there would be no way for the others to track her.

After a moment, the deck under them lurched as the skimmer lifted off. The people around her yelped in fear at the startling movement. Pushing aside her own anxiety about the implant and being separated from those she depended on, she reached out to grasp the hands of the people nearest her. She couldn’t do much to comfort them at this point, but she had to do something.

The group shifted collectively as the anti-grav kicked in, then there was no perceptible movement. No way to tell which direction they were traveling, how fast or how far. The helpless captives could only wait. The hands that grasped hers squeezed tight, almost painfully, but she held them securely back.

After a long while, Kee’s eyes adjusted to the dark enough that she could see faint light coming through an air vent, but it wasn’t enough to see the faces around her. The Cardassians surely had surveillance devices around them so it would be unwise to start calling out names to see who might be with her. She forced herself to remain patient.

With nothing to occupy her thoughts, the uncertainty returned. These people had asked for their help, they were counting on her and the others. If she was the only one from her cell here, she doubted she could do anything more than be a beacon for the rest to follow.

Numerous scenarios insinuated themselves into her mind and in every one of them, she failed them somehow. Then she remembered the town that had been grotesquely slaughtered because they helped the Resistance, Hegasa. The people there had also counted on them. The memory made her sick all over again as though it had just happened.

Kee’s stomach dropped, signaling a return to normal gravity and soon a shudder moved through the deck as the vehicle touched down. She could hear shaking breaths all around her as the terrified group waited. Finally, the ramp began to open up and a sliver of light sliced through the darkness, blinding them once again.

The group pushed back away from the opening as Cardassian soldiers came into view, pointing phaser rifles at them and began grabbing people and propelling them down the ramp.

A Cardassian at the bottom of the ramp sorted people into two fenced areas, the men to the left and the women to the right. Kee thought she saw Gam up ahead, but it was hard to see in the glaring light.

At the base of the ramp she was roughly pulled to the right and lined up in a fenced corridor with the other women. She’d gotten to know most of them during the time she’d spent in their village and identified the few ahead and behind in the line as Hati, Vada, Jilra, Giyiano and directly in front of her, Ogena. She avoided leaning out of line just to identify them, it didn’t really matter who was here.

The sound of heavy machinery filled the air, clearly identifying this place as a mine. Looking around, she could see that they were nowhere near Joralla. The land here was flat and the trees short. She guessed they could possibly be in the Sahving Valley or somewhere along that latitude, there were a number of mining operations there.

Up ahead, one woman at a time was shoved through a door. Then a few minutes later another, then another. Ogena turned to look at her, fear written plainly on her face. Kee put her hand on the woman’s shoulder and she turned back. All of the people in the group abducted today knew that she was with the resistance. It would have been impossible to hide it from them. She only hoped her presence could be a comfort to them.

When Ogena was guided through the door and Kee could see inside for a moment. It was a small chamber with a door on the opposite side. Inside were three Cardassians, one had a phaser rifle, and that was all she could see before the door slid closed again.

The soldier standing in front of the door grabbed her upper arm and held her tight. She resisted the urge to yank her arm away, to strike him or to question his parentage, forcing herself instead to only lower her head in submission. The last thing she needed to do right now was stand out from the crowd.

When the door opened again the three Cardassians were still there but Ogena was gone and Kee was shoved into the middle of the room.

The door shut behind her and she was sealed in with them. The one with the rifle leveled it at her chest and she obediently stood still with her eyes downcast. Then, the second one stepped close, grabbed the neck of her shirt and sliced it open with a knife.

She jerked away, startled, but the one with the phaser took up a threatening stance to remind her not to fight. She held still with her heart pounding while the one with the knife methodically cut away her clothes until she stood naked before them.

The third one, seeming almost bored, passed a decontamination wand over her from head to toe.

Then the one with the knife gathered her long hair into a bundle. She felt the cold, blunt back of the knife against the nape of her neck and a tugging pressure against her hair. Then the pressure released as the blade sliced through her hair and bits of short hair fell loose around her face.

He turned away to dispose of the bundle of her hair along with her clothes while the other one grabbed her hand and pressed her thumb against a scanner. She silently prayed that Joial’s hack to the identification database had been effective.

Her heart pounded in her ears as she waited.

A short eternity later the scanner signaled its approval and a stack of grey clothing and a pair of flimsy shoes were thrust into her hands. After that she was pushed through the other door into another room where the other women were getting dressed, all of their hair had been bluntly cut like hers.

Kee moved to the side of the room and dressed quickly, then looked around to assess the situation.

Three more soldiers stood around the room keeping watch. None of the women here were from her cell, but she spotted Jilra, Giyiano and Ogena again and identified the others by name or by face. They were of all ages, some were wives and mothers, some single or widows, the selection really had been completely random. But they did have one thing in common, they were all overwhelmed with various levels of shock and fear.

She moved to the one closest to her, Jaiehi, and wrapped her arm around her for comfort, then reached out for another with the other arm. The guards eyed her with suspicion but didn’t stop her as she moved through the group, trying to touch and encourage each one here.

Once the last of their group had been processed, the Cardassians opened a door at the other end of the room and barked orders at them to get moving.

The group of women were pushed and shoved outside to rejoin the men. This time she not only saw Gam but also Joial, both dressed in the same grey clothes.

They were sent down another fenced corridor and guided into a low, wide building. Just before going inside, she caught site of the colossal mining pit, the death pit, and knew there had to be workers down there. How many of them would die before Ren and the others found them, she couldn’t be sure.

Inside the building, the sound of heavy machinery was muted and replaced by screeching carts and the crash of loads of rocks being dumped. Then the stifling heat enveloped her, making it hard just to breathe the thick air.

The group was led down row after row of dirty, exhausted Bajorans who stood before bins of rocks. From what she could tell, they were sorting the rocks from one bin into two others.

The Cardassian in charge began pulling people off the line to be replaced by the newcomers. One by one they were assigned a place in line as the previous occupant was led away. Kee was grabbed and placed in front of a set of bins. The one on the left held plain, grey rocks. The one on the right held chunks of uridium ore, identifiable by the metallic bands running through it. The bin in the center was a mixture. Guessing at what she was expected to do, she began picking up pieces from the center and sorting them.

* * *

After uncountable hours of sorting rocks, Kee’s shoulders and back ached. Her fingers were raw. The sound of the machinery pounded in her head and layers of dirt attached themselves to the sweat on her arms and face.

She picked up another piece from the center bin, which had been refilled at least a dozen times by now. Bands of ore ran through the chunk of rock and she stopped for a moment to gaze at it. As if taking the ore from them wasn’t bad enough, her people were forced to hand it to them. Giving away fragments of their own world a piece at a time. Her reverie was interrupted by a jab in her back by a phaser rifle. She immediately dropped the piece into the proper bin and entertained a fantasy about killing the guards one by one, each in a different way.

About the time she felt she could not pick up another rock, an alarm sounded. The veterans of the work line stopped and backed up one step, Kee copied them. Then they turned and were ushered out. The line moved unbelievably slowly, and she had no idea what they were even in line waiting for, she simply followed, too exhausted to even care anymore.

Finally, as the line moved into another room, she could smell food. Overcooked and on the edge of being spoiled, but food nonetheless. Having been grabbed straight out of bed that morning, she hadn’t eaten anything the whole day.

When she reached the front of the line, a Cardassian woman in civilian clothes handed her a wooden bowl. The Cardassian woman looked at her with something like pity that made Kee want to reach across and strangle her. Instead she looked down at the bowl to see a few unidentifiable chunks in varying shades of brown floating in a thin broth. It smelled even worse than it looked, but she knew there would be no opportunity to obtain anything else, so she turned and found an empty seat.

The first bite almost made her gag, but she swallowed fast. After forcing down a few more mushy and foul bites two people dropped into the seats next to and across from her. She looked up to see it was Gam and Joial. Looking at them she realized how bad she must look, too, but she was glad to see them. They both had similar reactions to the food.

“Makes Naren seem like a gourmet cook, doesn’t it?” She teased.

The two of them snickered in agreement.

“I wonder what they did with the people they took off the line?” Gam said.

Joial responded without looking up from his bowl, “Other duties if they’re lucky. But laborers who are too sick or disabled to work are usually killed or sent to medical testing facilities.”

That last option turned her stomach more than the awful food itself. She leaned back in her chair and dropped the spoon into the bowl with a loud clank and pushed it away from her.

“Thank you for that.” She told him. There was no way she’d be able to take another bite.

The man to her right spoke up, “If you’re not going to finish that, can I have it?”

Her heart broke for the man, so desperate for the few bits and broth left in her bowl. She slid it over to him without a word and he quickly ate it. Kee turned back to her partners and asked Joial in a hushed voice, “We need to prepare to disable the defense shields before the others get here.”

“I’ve got most of it worked out, but I need each of you to do something.” He outlined his plan, giving both of them their assignments in exact detail.

She had always known he was brilliant, but now more than ever she admired at his understanding of Cardassian computer systems from memory, down to the layout of each interface they’d be using.

“Got it.” She said when he was done, then the workers were shepherded out of the mess hall and into gender-separated barracks.

* * *

Every time Kee blinked, she had to force her eyes open. She wanted to sleep so badly but had to stay awake no matter what. Other women slept on bunks around her, their soft breathing threatening to lull her to sleep. When she heard no more restless stirring, she waited a while longer to make sure they were all asleep, then slid off her bunk as quietly as possible. Despite her care the metal joints creaked loudly. She stopped and listened to see if the noise had awakened anyone, but no one stirred.

Kee padded barefoot between the rows, looking for a ventilation grate or some other way out of the room. She found a maintenance hatch, but it was sealed. In the corner of the room she finally saw a vent in the ceiling between two bunks that looked just large enough for her to squeeze through. She slowly and delicately climbed up the edge of the bunk nearest the opening, but it was still too far to reach. Stretching one leg across to the adjacent bunk she straddled between the two and could finally reach the vent.

She dug her sore fingers into the edge and pulled but it wouldn’t budge. An inspection showed that it was indeed a pressure fit, so should pop right off. Retrieving a thin, sharp piece of ore she had pocketed earlier in the day, she wedged it into the gap between the wall and the rim and pried with all of the strength she could manage in her position. When it suddenly gave way, she had to grab the loose grate with one hand and the opening to the duct with the other to keep from falling. She listened to the sounds of sleeping behind her and breathed a sigh of relief when all was still quiet.

With the grate propped where it wouldn’t fall and make a loud clamor, Kee reached into the duct to find a handhold and lifted herself inside. The muscles in her arms and back and fingers protested, but she kept climbing, grasping for any edge to hold on to, no matter how small, until only her legs hung out. She continued wiggling and pulling until her knees were inside, then she could wedge them against the sides of the duct to propel herself forward. It was tight, if she’d been well-fed, she’d never have been able to fit.

After a few meters, the duct opened up into a larger passage that she rolled and tumbled into. She took out the piece of ore again and scratched her initials into the side of the duct to mark where she’d come through. Then she crawled through the larger duct until she found a vent that opened into a corridor.

She listened for a few moments but only heard the sound of her own breath, so she laced her fingers between the openings in the grate and wiggled it lose, setting it inside the duct next to her. Then she turned onto her stomach and lowered herself out of the opening. When her arms were fully extended, she dropped the last meter to the floor, crouching to absorb the impact.

In the dim light she hurried quietly down the corridor until she found a computer access panel. Again using the piece of ore, she pried off the interface cover. She smiled at the amorphous piece of metal. It seemed fitting that the very thing that was being systematically taken from them would be her tool to help liberate these workers. She reached inside the web of cables and circuitry and used her tool again to pry an ODN cable loose then connected it to a different port. Before she was able to start the next step of the process, she heard footsteps. Probably a patrol. She reattached the panel and hurried away and backed into the shadows.

Kee’s heart pounded but she kept her breath slow and quiet as the guard meandered by, passing the beam of a flashlight briefly down the corridor where she hid. She listened to his footsteps as they grew quieter.

Finally, she emerged from her hiding place and resumed work in the panel. With the ODN rerouted to an incorrect port, she first needed to place the computer into a diagnostic mode where it would get stuck in a loop. After that, all she needed to do was drill down into the source code and plant a command that Joial could then use at another console to disable the weapons without the sabotage being detected.

Gam would also make a modification elsewhere that would cause a power surge when they tried to reactivate the weapons and would knock out the shield generators. She only hoped these modifications would go undetected long enough for the rest of the cell to arrive.

When she had pulled up the exact code block she was looking for, she typed in the sequence in Cardassian characters, then backed out of the system, one screen at a time. Lastly she pulled up the log file, copied a span of ten minutes from the previous night and overwrote her activities. After that, she cancelled the diagnostic program, opened the panel and moved the ODN line back where it had been. She hurried back to the open vent, which stood a meter above her reach.

Looking up at the opening, she considered her options: jump or climb. But the wall was smooth, no handholds or ledges. The opposite wall was too far away to use it to brace herself for a climb. Jumping would have to do. She listened for footsteps, crouched and leapt as high as she could, just barely grasping the edge of the opening. She dangled there for a moment, gathering her strength before pulling herself upward using only her fingertips at first.

Once she got her elbows over the edge she could push herself up then turn to sit on the frame. Sitting for a moment to catch her breath, she realized there was blood on the edge next to her, so she looked at her fingers to see that they had been cut by the metal edge. That would certainly make tomorrow’s work more difficult. She applied pressure directly to each of the cuts, hoping to slow the bleeding, then pulled her legs inside the duct and repositioned the vent cover back into place and crawled back to the mark she’d made earlier.

The smaller section of duct was short enough that she could hear footsteps beyond in the barracks. Heavy boots, walking slowly. A patrol must have been checking the bunks. She thought quickly. If they saw that she was missing or that the vent was open, that could trigger a lockdown and an analysis of the computer systems that would uncover their sabotage. She decided to go in head-first, squeezing and wiggling through the narrow space as she had before.

When she reached the end, she could see a Cardassian soldier with a rifle on the far end of the dark room, pacing up and down each row. She reached out to grasp the corner of the bunk nearest her and pulled her body out. Once her knees were free, she put one foot on each bunk as before and quickly secured the grate back into place before dropping to the floor.

With the patrol approaching her empty bunk, she crouch-walked as quickly as she could back and rolled into the thin pad that was her bed. Her heart pounded and she desperately wanted to gasp for air, but she forced her body to relax and to breathe slowly.

Eyes closed, she could hear the patrol pass slowly by her without stopping. She continued to feign sleep until he left the room, then she could finally catch her breath. She rolled onto her back and stared at the bottom of the bunk above her wondering if she’d be able to sleep after all of that.

* * *

The three of them had been in this place for four days now. Joial wondered how long it would take for the others to track them here. Assuming they could make it at all. The endless round of work, one unsatisfying meal a day and short sleep period gave him a lot of time to think. The fatigue threatened to overwhelm him, but he kept his mind busy coming up with contingency plans. If their sabotage failed, what would they do? If their sabotage was discovered, what would they do? If they themselves were discovered? If the rest of the cell never made it? He’d imagined a massive flowchart of ifs, but couldn’t possibly plan for everything that could go wrong.

He glanced down the row. Today he’d been assigned a place not far from Kee. She looked exhausted, too. Her stringy hair hung in her face, he couldn’t quite get used to seeing it cut short like that.

A soldier passed by behind him and Joial made sure his eyes were on his work. After a few more steps the soldier was behind Kee, then another step after that he came to a stop. He reached his hand around the woman next in line and brushed a strand of hair out of her face, tucking it behind her ear, then trailed a finger down the side of her neck. When he reached the collar of her shirt, her shoulders twitched, but he continued down the edge of the fabric and slid farther down to cup her breast.

Joial could see Kee trying to ignore the commotion next to her, but knew that wouldn’t last long. He knew Kee too well, she wouldn’t stand for it.

Sure enough, when the soldier began pulling the woman away to take her somewhere private, Kee reacted. Despite her exhaustion, she sprang into action, striking out with the heel of her hand to break his nose first. Then she drove her heel into the inside of his thigh, knocking him to the ground, then her knee to the side of his neck.

Kee didn’t see the two other soldiers descending on her until it was too late. One grabbed her from behind, holding her arms back and the other slammed the butt of his phaser into her stomach, forcing her to double over.

Before Joial knew what he was doing, he rushed to help her, but another two soldiers were on him before he could reach her. Their reaction time was staggeringly fast. The four soldiers shouted at the other Bajorans to get back to work as they hauled Kee and Joial away and down a corridor. The injured one stumbled off in a different direction.

They stopped where the corridor intersected another at a T and held them tight on opposite ends of the space. The one that had struck her with his phaser walked over to her and gripped her chin in his hand.

“Looks like we have a troublemaker here.” He looked up at the one holding her, “And you know what we do with troublemakers.”

The one holding her sneered at her in a way that made Joial’s skin crawl.

“No!” He called and jerked to free himself, trying to lunge toward them, but the fourth soldier slammed the butt of his rifle into his stomach, forcing him to his knees.

The first one spoke again, “Who do you think he is? Her father? Her _lover_?” He smirked as the others chuckled. “We’ll make him watch.”

Kee’s jaw was tight, her face nearly unreadable, but he could see she was calculating, searching for a way out.

Joial tried to fight back, but the one who’d struck him, grabbed the hair on the back of his head and raised his fist as though to hit him again.

“No! No!” Kee cried out, “I’ll cooperate, just send him back to work.” She pleaded.

“Kee! No!” He shouted and lunged to free himself but the Cardassian pressed the tip of his phaser under his chin.

The Cardassian who seemed to be in charge pondered the options as he slipped his hand around her waist, finally saying to Kee, “An appealing offer, but you see, I like a challenge.” He motioned to the others to take them away, but just as they began moving them away to a suitable location, an alarm klaxon blared.

“Take them to a holding cell!” The one ordered as he marched off in a different direction.

With tremendous relief Joial allowed himself to be led down the corridor with Kee toward the holding area. The sound of weapon’s fire outside the compound reached them. Their friends had arrived. Once there, they were shoved into a holding cell together and two of the soldiers walked away, leaving one to guard them.

Joial turned to Kee, “Are you ok?”

Kee looked at him as though he’d just asked the most ridiculous question she’d ever heard. “Yeah.” Then she turned away to begin visually inspecting the cell for weaknesses. It was only then that he caught a glint of a piece of sharp ore palmed in her hand.

He smiled to himself. Only six years ago she’d been this brave little girl, so uncertain and terrified of letting anyone down. She’d given everything of herself to the Resistance without restraint. And now the woman who stood next to him was confident, cunning and strong. Joial was proud of her beyond words, but a nag of regret always pulled at the back of his mind. He was sure her father wouldn’t have wanted this life for her. Yet, he doubted there would have been any way to stop her from joining anyway.

Weapon’s fire in the corridor just outside drew the guard’s attention, but their colleagues couldn’t have made it that far that fast.

Joial and Kee waited helplessly in the cell. The door opened and a single phaser blast hit the guard where his armor wouldn’t protect him and he dropped to the floor. A moment later Gam slipped inside holding one phaser rifle in his hand and two more slung across his shoulder.

“Thought you two might need a hand.” He said before firing into the force field control panel. The force field flickered and winked out.

Gam handed the two rifles to Kee and Joial saying, “I saw the two of you hauled away. As soon as the alarm started it was chaos. The workers overwhelmed the guards on the floor. I grabbed a phaser and headed here. Picked up two more on the way.”

“Nice!” Kee said proudly to the man she’d trained. “Let’s see what further chaos we can spread around here.” She said, leading the way out.

The three moved along the corridor, taking turns covering each other as they went. The faint sounds of movement from around the bend set them on edge. Together they swung around the corner and found themselves pointing their phasers at the tips of two Klingon disruptors.

At the sight of Ren and Alerra, Joial breathed a sigh of relief.

Unfazed, Ren dug into his pocket and retrieved three comm units and handed them to each of them. He rested a hand on Kee’s shoulder affectionately. Those two had some kind of special connection.

Ren turned to him, “Joial, I need you to come to the command center with me. I want the weapons and shields back online while we regroup.” Then to the others he said, “You three, continue searching the compound. If you happen to come across any medical supplies, grab them. Ilwea says we’re running low.”

After nodding their understanding, Kee and the others started down the corridor and Joial followed Ren the other way.

* * *

Kee took point, leading Alerra and Gam on a search of the compound as ordered. The area was almost entirely empty, most of the Cardassians having moved to their emergency posts as soon as the alarm went off. She focused on what was ahead of her, trusting the other two to watch their backs. She cautiously approached an intersection, peering down both directions. When she saw nothing, she darted across, but before the others could follow her, phaser fire erupted between them.

A team of Cardassians advanced quickly on their position. The Bajorans fired back, but the Cardassians were coming in hard and fast. Kee motioned for the others to fall back as she moved in the opposite direction. The Cardassians split up in both directions. With phaser beams blazing over her head and at her heels, she ran as fast as she could down the corridor. She rounded a corner well ahead of her pursuers and began reaching out to tap the door controls on each door she passed, finally slipping inside one of them. She leaned against the wall in the dark room, holding her phaser rifle at the ready and locked the door, working to catch her breath.

Suddenly a noise in the room caught her attention. She breathed slowly, quietly, listening for any sound and finally became aware of someone else’s breathing. She looked around the dark room to see rows of countertops, storage units and cooking surfaces. This was their kitchen where they made that awful food. After another minute of listening, she was able to pinpoint the source of the sound, behind a large row of kettles. Kee lowered herself down to a squat and flipped up the scope on her phaser rifle. Peering through it, she could see a pair of hands and feet beyond the kettles. “Step out with your hands up.” She said with as much authority as she could manage.

The Cardassian woman from the food line stepped timidly out into view with her hands up. Kee leveled her phaser rifle at her chest, itching to pull the trigger, but she couldn’t bring herself to shoot an unarmed civilian in cold blood. Not even a Cardassian.

“Please, don’t hurt me.” The woman begged.

Kee reached out to grab the woman’s arm and spun her around to face away from her. With her free hand, she patted the woman down for weapons, trackers or anything else. When she found nothing she turned her back to face her, pressing the tip of her phaser rifle against her cheek. “If you try anything, I will kill you.” When the woman nodded her agreement, Kee shoved her down into a chair and began scouting the room.

The woman was silent for a long time, then finally said in a plaintive voice, “Why are you doing this?”

Kee blinked and turned back to her. “What?”

“Why do you attack us?”

Kee’s mind reeled to grasp the question. This woman saw the starved, exhausted workers every day. How could she not understand? “Why do you think?”

“I don’t know. We’re just trying to help you!”

“Help us? Help us do what exactly?”

“Lift you out of this poverty.” The woman’s genuine look of pity, like the first time she’d seen her, made Kee want to slap the expression right off of her face.

Kee fought to reign in the fury that was building inside her. With a careful control over her voice, she said, “How dare you.” She began to lose her control and her voice raised a bit. “You come here and take whatever you want from us, you throw our society into hopeless poverty, you murder our people! How dare you claim that you’re helping us!”

The smug look had not left the woman’s face. “If you would only allow us to help you, nobody would die.”

“You seriously can’t believe that!” But it was clear that she did. “We were a peaceful people with a thriving economy before your people came. There were no labor camps, no ghettos, all of that happened after your people came to ‘help us’.”

The woman was silent, unusual for a Cardassian, so Kee continued. “My family was wealthy with a successful business until some Cardassian decided he wanted their home. So he took it from them and sent them to a refugee camp to live off of the charity of the Cardassians. It happens all the time, all over Bajor. The Cardassians want something, they take it. They need workers, they abduct them. And anybody who stands up to stop it be damned!”

“I didn’t know.” The woman said softly without making eye contact.

But Kee didn’t let up. “Do you think we want to live like this? Do you think any of these people came here by choice? Do you think they want or deserve to be worked to death? To be starved? Raped?”

She brought her voice back down to a lower volume. “These people had lives. Hard lives because of everything your people have taken from them, but they were with their families and friends. They had homes and jobs and community. Then one day they’re snatched out of their beds and brought here to hand pieces of our world over to a bunch of monsters!” Kee had nearly screamed that last part and the woman reacted as though she expected to be struck. She should be. Kee thought.

The woman cowered there for a few moments, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

Kee worked to bring her anger under control. “Of course you didn’t.” She sneered. “Your government lies to you. And that would give you some excuse, except that you blindly accept what they tell you. You feel happy, and safe and superior, so you don’t even question it.” Kee turned away. “Kloss. Why do I even bother?” 

With the woman silenced, Kee resumed checking the room over.

“The only other way out is through the mess hall.” The woman said softly.

“Why should I trust you?”

“Because I don’t want to be a hostage. You might have a chance to escape through there.”

“Oh, I don’t plan on escaping. We’re taking this facility and we’re going to return the workers back to their homes.” Kee began checking through drawers for a tricorder. After some searching she finally found one and switched it on to scan the corridor she’d come from. Sensors detected several Cardassians watching the corridor as others opened rooms and searched them. She pulled up a schematic of the facility and confirmed that the only other way out of the room was through the mess hall, but if she used that route it would take her in the opposite direction. Her orders were to secure the facility, not to run away.

Kee found a metal table that wasn’t bolted to the floor and flipped it noisily over. Then she grabbed the Cardassian woman by the arm and dragged her behind it.

“What are you doing?” The woman asked.

“They’re going to find us eventually. I want to be ready.” She ducked behind the table and rested the tip of her phaser rifle on the edge of it as she began to hear someone on the other side of the door trying to override the lock. With her attention focused on the door she failed to notice the woman reaching for something on the floor. Suddenly she had a kitchen knife in her hand and lunged at her. Kee turned and fired. The woman lived long enough to see the burned wound in her chest before falling to the floor dead.

Just then the door opened. Kee turned back to it to see the silhouette of a Cardassian and began firing. The moment she stopped to inspect the damage she’d done, phaser blasts from at least three sources fired back at her through the door. The table she used as cover began to glow hot from the energy discharges. She waited for a pause, then raised up and fired again until the warning light on her phaser blinked to indicate it was about to overheat.

Again she backed down and concealed herself behind the table. The return fire erupted again and the table began to disintegrate under the onslaught, so she slid herself behind another piece of equipment. She eyed her phaser, waiting for it to be ready again. The barrage stopped and she heard footsteps of troops come in the door. The phaser still wasn’t ready. She reached down and found the knife that had tumbled out of the woman’s hand and she palmed it.

Before they got to her, she heard phaser fire again, this time out in the corridor and the Cardassians returned to the doorway to fire back the other way. The warning light on her phaser winked off and she leaned out of her hiding place to see phaser blasts coming at the doorway from the corridor in both directions.

The three Cardassians were well-hidden from the corridor but from her vantage point she could easily pick them off from behind. She raised her phaser to her cheek to aim, picked her first target and fired then quickly fired on the second. By then the third had turned to shoot back at her but a figure stepped into the doorway and shot him instead.

Kee felt her body slump in relief when she saw that it was Cadda. Then Ilwea, Alerra and Gam came into view. “Thanks.” She told them as she pushed herself up off of the floor.

“That was the last of them.” Cadda told her.

“Any luck on those medical supplies?” Kee asked.

“No.” Ilwea said, clearly disappointed. “We found their infirmary, but it had been destroyed, every piece of equipment is smashed.”

“Ren wants you and Ilwea in the control center while we round up the workers.” Cadda said.

“Alright.” Kee confirmed and headed toward the door.

* * *

Ren guarded Joial while he worked on getting the facility’s defenses back online. Now that he’d silenced the alarm it was easier to focus. As soon as they had shields and weapons they’d still only have a few hours to get the workers to safety before the Cardassians overwhelmed them. The problem was, he wasn’t sure exactly how to do that.

There was a skimmer still sitting on the landing pad, but it wasn’t big enough to carry everyone. Besides, they’d likely be shot down before they got very far. They couldn’t transport out without lowering the shields and they’d only have time to transport a few people before the Cardassians were on top of them. A ground escape was also unlikely to succeed since they were probably already surrounded.

“Got it.” Joial said as the consoles around them reactivated.

“Raise the shields, charge the weapons.”

“Already on it.”

Just then Kee and Ilwea entered. “Cadda said you wanted to see us.”

“Yes, Ilwea, get on the computer and check to see if there’s anywhere around here you could go to find those medical supplies.” He turned to Kee, “We need to get these people out of here.”

Kee pursed her lips for a moment as she thought, “Is that skimmer still here?” When he nodded, she continued, “If we could rig it up to fly remotely, we could use it as a decoy.”

He hadn’t thought of that, “Mmm. If we could mask our biosigns and keep the workers hidden, we can we transport them out in small batches while they’re busy with the skimmer.”

“It’ll be hard to hide that many biosigns.”

“Joial?”

“Um… I might be able to do it.” He said, already beginning to tap commands into the computer.

“I believe Alerra knows how to run a transporter. I want you to stay with her and watch her back. I’ll control the skimmer. Veeso and Fenja will transport out first to keep the area secure and we’ll beam all of the workers out. Then the rest of us will follow.”

“Got it.” Kee said and left to inform the others of the plan. He smiled after her for a moment, she’d be an excellent leader when the time came.

Then he found a computer terminal and began scouting for a location to transport to.

* * *

Kee stood ready to keep watch over Ren, Joial and Alerra in the transporter room. Joial had enlisted Gam’s help setting up the remote navigation for the skimmer while he focused on obscuring their biosigns. Alerra was busy rigging the transporter console to self-destruct after the last transport was complete so the Cardassians wouldn’t be able to track where they went.

The door opened and Veeso and Fenja walked in. “The workers have all moved into the mining tunnels.” Veeso reported.

Kee could see Joial was running a scan with the sensors to confirm the workers were hidden. “The scattering field is masking them. As long as they stay put, we’ll be able to blind-transport them out.” He shut down the scanner and returned to what he was working on. “I’m routing remote control of the skimmer to this console.” He told Ren. “I’ll handle the scattering field and shields from over there.” Indicating the console on the other side of Alerra.

Veeso and Fenja stepped onto the transporter pad as Ren began working the controls. “I’m starting up the skimmer.”

Kee slipped her phaser rifle off of her shoulder and prepared to defend them.

“Skimmer’s ready. Drop the shields. Energize.” He said.

Veeso and Fenja dematerialized. Ren, Joial and Alerra focused silently on their tasks. Kee stood ready with her heart pounding, listening for any sign that soldiers were moving in from the corridor outside or transporting in.

“First group is away. Four more to go.” Alerra said.

“The skimmer is taking heavy fire.” Ren informed them.

“I could use the facility’s weapons to defend it to give us more time.” Joial offered.

“No. Then they’ll know someone’s still here.”

“Group two.” Alerra said.

Kee heard footsteps outside the door, she concentrated on keeping calm.

“The skimmer’s down.” Ren said and backed away from the console to raise his phaser toward the door.

“Group three.”

“Scattering field is still in place.” Joail said.

The door’s keypad indicated the exterior pad had been activated. It would only take them a minute to override the door lock. Kee breathed slowly.

“Group four.”

The keypad’s unlock icon blinked on. Kee began firing as soon as the door opened, Ren’s phaser fire joined hers a moment later. Kee resisted the urge to duck behind the consoles, her priority had to be protecting Alerra as long as necessary.

Suddenly Kee heard the sound of a transporter behind her. She turned to see three Cardassians beaming in. The moment they fully materialized she shot and killed the middle one. The one closest to Alerra turned to grab her but Kee rushed toward him. She slammed her shoulder low into his stomach while hooking her leg around his to pull it out from under him. She came down on top of him, digging her elbow into his neck. She was vaguely aware of Ren struggling with the other one and Joial firing at the door to keep them out.

“Done!” Alerra announced through the chaos.

Kee reached back to her hip and grabbed the kitchen knife she’d picked up earlier. With the Cardassian still pinned by his neck ridge she flipped the knife around in her hand and slid it across his neck. Blood poured out of the wound indicating that she’d hit the artery. Once his head lulled to the side, she stood up to see that Ren had dispatched the other one. Before more Cardassians could beam in, Alerra activated the auto-transport program and the room dissolved around them to be replaced by a thick grove of short trees and tall grass.

Kee looked around to see both the workers and her comrades. As she breathed a sigh of relief, she began to feel water seeping into her shoes and looked down to see that they were standing in a marsh. Cadda slogged over to Ren with a look on her face that made it clear she wasn’t happy about the wet feet either.

“Where to from here?” She asked.

Ren pulled out a tricorder, “Find somewhere dry and stay put for a couple of hours. There’s a settlement that way,” he said, looking up from the tricorder and pointing. “I’ll go see what I can arrange as far as shelter and transport.” Then he looked back and the tricorder and pointed off in a different direction, “Kee and Ilwea, there’s a large city that way. Go and see if you can get ahold of some medical supplies.”

Kee nodded her understanding and began walking with Ilwea away from the group.


	13. Hold Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: this one's pretty harsh, but still PG13.

9370, Bajor (2368, Earth Calendar)

_(Immediately following the previous chapter)_

Kee hated big cities. Too many Cardassians. Too many collaborators. Not enough cover. Too easy to get trapped by a lockdown. And any city that didn’t have a Resistance cell wasn’t a place she wanted to be.

She and Ilwea waited in the alley behind a Sahving Valley medical facility. They’d talked to one person after another until they found the name of a nurse who was sympathetic to the Resistance and would give them some medical supplies. Each person in that long list, though, could potentially be a collaborator.

She glanced over at Ilwea, worry passing silently between them. Neither of them felt good about this. They were too exposed, had talked to too many people. But without medical supplies, they were just as dead as if they were lined up and shot.

Kee’s shoulders tensed when the door cracked open, then she saw the face of the man they were expecting to meet. In his trembling hand, he held a plain satchel full of their supplies. But before he could hand it to them, a Cardassian ground vehicle came to a fast halt, blocking the end of the alley.

“Go!” She shouted to the nurse and waved him back into the building even as she reached to pull the phaser out of the back of her waist band and began to shuffle backward towards the other end of the alley.

When soldiers started pouring out of the vehicle, she and Ilwea fired a couple of shots at them and bolted in the other direction only to find it blocked by the arrival of another vehicle.

They pressed back-to-back in the middle of the empty alley, self-preservation at war with the knowledge of what was sure to happen if they were taken alive. Might be better to be shot down then and there. She let loose phaser fire toward the enemy on one side while he did the same the other way, knowing full well they’d never be able to hold them off.

Rapid-fire phaser blasts pelted the ground at their feet and they broke away from each other to flatten against the wall.

Squinting against the brightness of the energy blasts, she caught sight of Ilwea. On her own, she may have been willing to sacrifice herself in order to take down as many of the enemy as she could, but she couldn’t forfeit his life for that.

She squeezed her eyes shut against the ache in her heart and the defiance in her pagh and dropped her weapon in surrender.

A moment later, she heard him do the same.

The Cardassians moved in quickly from both sides, kicking the weapons away from them. One of the Cardassians yanked her away from her comrade and shoved her face-first onto the dirty ground. Her chin hit the hard surface, knocking her teeth together in a shock that rung through her head. One of the Cardassians pressed his phaser painfully into the base of her skull just as she heard Ilwea’s grunt as he hit the ground next to her.

Her arms were wrenched tight behind her back and her wrists cuffed, but they kept her on the ground. She wanted to turn her head to see that Ilwea was alright, but didn’t dare move with the weapon still trained point-blank on her.

Somewhere behind her, the cold surface of a DNA scanner was pressed against her thumb. Then a long pause.

Had they connected her to the mine? Had they uncovered her real identity?

If they knew who she really was, maybe it would have been better to fight them to the end.

The soldiers around her said nothing, but there were voices far enough away down the alley that she couldn’t make out what they were saying, only the cadence of someone reporting to their commander.

She strained to hear, but all she caught was a curt, “Yes, sir.” Followed by approaching footsteps.

“Get them on their feet.” The same voice commanded nearer to them.

The pressure on the back of her neck let up and a hand wrapped around her arm, lifting her up while she scrambled to get her legs under her.

One of them tapped the communicator on his wrist, “Kapal here. Three to beam directly to the holding area.”

As the transporter took her, Ilwea and Kapal away, she cringed. Her tracker implant might still be giving off tritonium isotopes but a transporter wouldn’t leave any trail for their friends to follow.

* * *

Kee paced in her cell. After being beamed back down to some unknown place on the surface, she and Ilwea had been separated hours ago and she hadn’t seen him since. At best, he’d just been put in a separate holding area. Or they could be torturing him that very moment.

If he’d been taken to a different holding area, it would be for purely tactical reasons. This holding area was large, with maybe ten cells, all of them filled to capacity except for hers. She was alone in a cell that could accommodate seven or eight. She and Ilwea easily could have been held together, but they wouldn’t want them to communicate a plan. She hoped that’s all it was.

She leaned against the back wall to rest for a moment. Ilwea’s face appeared to her closed eyes. So many times, he’d looked into her eyes to diagnose a concussion or tend to a bruise or cut on her face that the image was burned into her memory. She’d seen him drop to his knees on the battle field to tend to a wounded comrade and try desperately to save a life long past the time anyone else would have given up.

She adored Ren and Joial, but the medic was the one who must be protected at all cost.

And now, anything could be happening to him and she could do nothing to stop it. She began pacing again. She shouldn’t allow the Cardassians to see her anxiety, but she couldn’t seem to stop it.

A sudden rise in commotion from the other prisoners told her someone had entered. She turned to see two Cardassians coming straight to her cell.

She knew the routine: phaser rifle pointed at her chest, force field down, hands cuffed in front of her, escort her out. It hadn’t taken many of these to learn not to fight. It was a useless waist of energy that she would need later. So, she went willingly, memorizing the route in case she would need it later.

The Cardassians led her silently through the corridors and stopped at a door that opened with a code and a thumbprint.

As she was guided inside, she took in the room. It was large, dark with the cold lines and equipment of a refined interrogation room. Pristine metal walls and floor that could be auto-sanitized and a second door to her left.

A split second after her eyes swept the room, she spotted a bright light in the center and Ilwea covered in blood and bruises. He’d been beaten, probably for the whole time they’d been apart. He was tied to a chair by his wrists and ankles, his hair was wet with blood or sweat and his head slumped forward. Just as she spotted him, a Cardassian standing next to him swung his fist down into Ilwea’s stomach. He coughed blood at the impact that spattered down to a stained drain between his feet.

Her only thought in that moment was to get to him. Protect him. Hurt those who had hurt him.

Careless of the phaser pointed at her, she jerked her arm away from the Cardassian at her side, turned and slammed her knee into his stomach.

While he was doubled over, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled back hard with the cuffs just under his chin. She remembered the weapon just in time to shove him in the way of the blast and he dropped out of her grasp when he was hit.

Before the one with the phaser could fire again, she had crashed her entire body weight into him, shoulder first. He was down for the moment. She might actually win this, but then something hard hit the back of her knees and she dropped down. Pain shot up from her knees from their impact with the metal floor.

Gray hands grasped her from behind. One of them grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her back while jamming a phaser painfully into her back.

In that position, leaning back off of her center of balance, she was helpless.

They only gave her a moment to ponder her fate before they hauled her backward toward an empty chair that faced Ilwea’s. She scrambled to keep her feet under her to keep herself from being dragged.

When they reached the chair, four Cardassians held her down into it, one on each arm and leg. She pulled and fought, but they secured her wrists and ankles just like Ilwea’s and locked them down.

The instant they let go, she jerked at the restraints, but they held her fast. Breathing hard, she tried to get a grip on herself to prepare for what she knew was going to happen. It had been stupid for her to fight; she’d accomplished nothing and wore herself out in the process. She glanced up at Ilwea. His eyes were open, but his head was still slumped. He had the right idea. Give them nothing.

She heard a door open and close next to her followed by a set of slow, heavy footsteps that stopped somewhere behind her.

“We know who you are.” A voice said as he stepped around into her view. “Norvish Keedra, second in command of one of the pathetic Joralla resistance cells.”

She picked a focal point on the floor and stared at it without response.

Then he scoffed at some personal joke in his last statement, “As if there was some kind of cogent command structure among your useless bands of agitators.” He leaned down close to her face, but she continued to stare at that fleck on the floor. “You have information we want.” He said simply. What it was, she was sure to find out, but he was right, if he knew the level of trust Ren had put in her, he knew she had a wealth of information.

When she gave him no reaction, he straightened up and said to his aides, “Prepare him.”

Then it dawned on her with a sick feeling in her stomach. She wasn’t the one to be tortured.

She couldn’t do this. Whatever information they wanted, she was willing to die to protect it, and knew that Ilwea was too. But was that enough to get them through this?

She begged the Prophets to give them both strength.

Another Cardassian rolled a medical cart up to Ilwea’s side and picked up a blade-scalpel from the tray. He calmly pressed the instrument to Ilwea’s forearm. As blood started to flow, she could see Ilwea tense against the pain and grit his teeth, but as the blade dug deeper, he cried out.

Kee flinched and wanted to shrink back away from the scene, but she was held securely to the chair.

When the Cardassian was finished cutting, he pressed a device the size of a coin into the bleeding wound. Ilwea steeled himself for the pain and barely managed to withstand it. The aide passed a dermal regenerator quickly across the cut, just enough to close it, leaving a deep red line behind. Then he moved to his other arm.

The lead Cardassian spoke to her again. “I think we’ll skip the part where I give you a chance to answer my questions before we begin in earnest.”

Unable to watch it happen again, she turned with her jaw tight to the Cardassian speaking and met his eyes dead-on.

“Since that would only be a waste of everyone’s time.” He added with a smile that looked more like baring of teeth and revealed a gap where a tooth was missing.

Something about that sight sent a chill down her spine.

Her attention snapped back to Ilwea at his strained grunt and she saw the Cardassian cut into the flesh above his knee and repeat the whole process again for both legs.

She wanted to scream at them to stop, to leave him alone, but it would only fuel their cruelty.

The edentate Cardassian only looked on in cold approval until the task was complete. Then he glowered callously into her eyes while he keyed in a command on a device in his hand.

Instantly, Ilwea’s body tensed. He tried to hold back, but when it was too much to bear, he screamed.

Kee felt her own voice cry out in sympathetic pain and anger. Static sparks danced across his arms and legs, radiating outward from the devices embedded there.

His scream died out as he ran out of breath. All while the Cardassian’s eyes bored down at her.

Then he switched it back off just long enough for Ilwea to take a breath and started it again. And he screamed again.

His cry died out, but the agony was so powerful he couldn’t fill his lungs again, only strain silently against his bonds, fingers clawing at nothing.

When she feared he might suffocate, the inquisitor turned it off for only a moment. Ilwea gasped for a breath only to scream again.

With each abuse, glowing, branching patterns became visible as electricity surged though his nerve tissues causing unimaginable pain.

Again, he struggled uselessly to take a breath until the Cardassian switched it off and Ilwea gulped for air.

This time he left it off and Ilwea’s head slumped in exhaustion. His chest heaved with each gasping breath.

The Cardassian had stepped behind her and leaned down into her ear. “What is the subspace frequency?”

The bottom of her stomach dropped. She knew the answer to that question. The Resistance used a hidden subspace carrier wave to communicate across the globe and in the system beyond. If the Cardassians found it, they could cripple the Resistance in days, maybe crush them entirely before they even knew what had happened. She could only imagine some rebel tortured into revealing the existence of the frequency in the first place.

The actual frequency changed constantly, but it could be calculated using a preset formula. Only cell leaders and their successors knew the formula.

She couldn’t give up the frequency, so she buried the knowledge as far away from her consciousness as she could. But without hope of rescue, it was only a matter of time.

“I see.” He said, taking her silence as an answer, and switched it on again.

Kee’s screams mixed with Ilwea’s.

* * *

The patterns on his arms and legs had begun to leave scorched marks in his skin when the device was turned off and the distinct scent of burned flesh had filled the room. Her stomach wretched at the smell, but there was nothing for it to vomit, so she only gagged.

“Look at him.” Ilwea’s tormentor said in her ear, grabbing her jaw and forcing her to look.

His whole body slouched forward. He’d begun losing consciousness during the few seconds he was allowed to rest. At least he had a few moments of peace.

“He wonders,” The Cardassian said in her ear again, “why you allow him to suffer like this. Why you won’t save him.”

The words, however untrue, stung. She was willing to give anything to save her people and she knew Ilwea would, too. The last thing he would want her to do was give up the frequency on his behalf. But the Cardassian’s words still wormed their way inside her, coiling tight around her insides, punctuated by Ilwea’s renewed screams when the device was suddenly reactivated.

She strained uselessly at her restraints, twisting and pulling so hard that her wrists were bruised and bloodied.

Her head dropped to her chest in defeat with tears trailing down her face as she sobbed helplessly.

* * *

Ilwea’s screams had grown weaker, even though Kee knew the pain was only getting worse. The scorched marks in his skin darkened with each torment he endured.

“The nerve damage is now too extensive to be repaired.” The Cardassian taunted again. “He’ll never regain the use of his extremities.” He moved to the other side of her. “He’d be better off dying now. But at least then he’d have peace. Why won’t you allow him peace?”

Her heart broke for her beloved friend. Those images of him tending to her came to mind again, crushing her heart. In her mind she saw him gently scolding her for taking some risk that he deemed excessive, but he did it with a knowing smirk. She tried to hold on to those memories of him, not what was happening now. Even if this ended right here, nothing would ever be the same for him.

She squeezed her eyes shut as his raw screams began again.

His skin along the burn marks began to split and bleed. But then the screaming stopped suddenly and his head dropped forward.

Barely daring to breathe, she glanced at the console that had been displaying his vital signs. Everything had dropped to zero. She stared at the flat lines then his still form. She felt like her heart would stop with his. Her eyes stung with a flood of tears.

But then the aide calmly placed a cortical stimulator on his forehead and turned back to the console. With a jolt to his body, Ilwea revived, gasping, only to resume screaming when the agony returned. They wouldn’t even let him die to end it.

* * *

Over and over his heart stopped and his brain activity came to a halt. Each time, she thought it would be the end. The end of his life, but also the end of his torment.

But over and over, they revived him. After a while, the cortical stimulator wasn’t enough and they added a dose of some kind of stimulant. And each time, he grew weaker and weaker. His responses to everything diminished. But his agonized screams still clawed at her heart.

Her tears flowed freely and constantly.

_x = exp(1j*pi*0.5)+exp(1n…_

Her mind began to supply the formula for the subspace frequency, but she pushed it away. She would not allow it to be forced from her. 

Then he died. Again.

“No.” Her voice was barely above a whisper. “Please don’t.” She pleaded.

The Cardassian leaned down to her. “Are you asking us not to revive him?” He mocked. “I thought you were friends.”

“Please.” She begged through the tightness in her throat.

“With one order, I can let him lie in peace.” He said with and edge of victory to his voice. “There’s only one thing you need to do. You have the power to give him rest.”

She couldn’t.

Her mind fought against itself between allegiance to the Resistance and ending the suffering of her friend. The formula wrestled itself to the surface of her consciousness to be shoved back down again and again.

On the edge of betrayal, she closed her eyes and pressed her lips together.

She heard the order given to revive him once again. The hiss of the hypospray. The jolt of the stimulator followed by his pained gasp for breath as he was forced back to life.

She took in a shaking breath and held it, waiting for the anguish again. She couldn’t betray her people, but she also couldn’t hold on much longer. Their cellmates wouldn’t possibly know where they were, there was no hope for rescue. A hollow feeling sunk into her at the knowledge that that betrayal was a certainty, her resolve was slipping away like Ilwea’s life.

Instead of that terrible screaming, though, the lights cut out and most of the consoles shut down. In the moment of uncertainty, without the hum of the computers, the room was deathly silent.

In the dim light, the toothless Cardassian took a few hurried steps back to a working console and tapped an emergency control pad only to receive a negative sound.

At that, he told one of the guards, “Cover her.” While the other guard and his assistant readied their phasers for whatever was coming, and he, too, retrieved a phaser out of a drawer.

The guard he had spoken to nudged the tip of his phaser against her temple while they waited, barely daring to breathe.

The screen showing Ilwea’s lifesigns had gone blank and she couldn’t tell whether he was still breathing.

Finally, the lock on the door behind her shattered with some kind of overload and all attention turned that way. The guard next to her kept his weapon trained on her, but the other guard and the assistant aimed for the door.

She had just registered the door to her left sliding open, followed instantly by a volley of phaser fire that sliced through the room.

One of the first blasts surged so close above her head that she felt the charge prickle across her skin and the guard next to her was flung away. The sound of the blast and the energy pouring off of the beam… with a flicker of hope, she recognized it as a Sheliak disruptor. Her cell had one of those.

Through slitted eyes, she saw the toothless Cardassian slap a control on the last functioning console and the locks at her wrists popped and smoked. Then he slipped out of the room through some unseen exit.

The joy of seeing her cellmates pour into the room was dampened by her worry about Ilwea’s condition. They’d just revived him, but was he _still alive_?

Ren momentarily glanced at the scene in front of him with the muscles in his neck strained tight, but dashed between them toward the fleeing Cardassian, calling behind him to Cadda, Joial and Gam, “Get them out of here.” Then he disappeared the same way alone.

Cadda slung the Sheliak weapon across her back and dropped down before her, but Kee was more concerned about Ilwea.

“Prophets!” Joial exclaimed, or prayed, and tipped Ilwea’s head up so he could feel for a pulse. “He’s alive.” He breathed.

Cadda had inspected the restraints on one side, then the other. “The locks are fused.”

She stepped away while Joial carefully plucked the cortical stimulator off of him. Then Cadda returned with a pair of laser scalpels, tossing one to Joial, and used the other to carefully cut through the clasp of the restraint on Kee’s right wrist.

Kee only stared at Ilwea with pained worry.

The first clasp released with a metallic clink and Cadda moved to the other side, spotting Kee’s expression. “You did the right thing.” She said, but Kee barely registered it, only waited numbly for her to finish the remaining restraints.

The moment she was free, she launched herself out of the chair toward Ilwea where Joial was on the floor working to free his ankles.

Kee knelt beside Ilwea and gently cupped her hand under his chin to lift his face to hers. His eyes were open, but he was unconscious. His hair was plastered to his forehead with sweat. The sclera of his eyes was red from burst blood vessels, but he was still breathing. She carefully lowered his head back down to its drooped position and reached up to kiss his sweat-wettened hair.

“Come on, we have to go. We have maybe thirteen more minutes before the system comes back online.” Joial said, urging her away.

Without knowing what he did, she could only imagine what a hornets’ nest the place would become when that time was up.

When she’d moved back, he took Ilwea’s arm over his shoulder and hooked Ilwea’s leg over his other shoulder and lifted him up to carry him away with them while Cadda handed her a phaser.

Her arms felt like the muscles were tearing themselves apart just to lift the weapon, but she ignored the pain and moved to go after Ren, but Cadda grabbed her wrist to stop her.

“He told us to get you two out of here.”

“I’m not going to leave him in here alone.”

“You’re in no condition to help him. We’ll get you out, then we’ll come back around for him.”

“There’s not enough time for that. You and Gam get Ilwea out of here safely. I’m going.” She insisted. Pulling away from Cadda, she headed for that end of the room and found a concealed doorway.

“QI'yaH!” Cadda cursed in Klingon behind her and Kee heard her jog to catch up.

“I told you to stay with them.” She lowered her voice as they tried to pick up Ren’s trail.

“And Ren told you to stay with us.” She whispered back. “Looks like we’re both bad at following orders.”

The mechanical sound of a door up ahead echoed through the dark corridors. “How many of them are on this level?” Kee asked.

“Not many. They were in the middle of a shift change and Joial stranded most of them in the turbolifts.”

Kee edged up to a junction and checked in both directions. To the right, she saw a Cardassian body on the floor with a smoking phaser burn in his chest, so she decided to go that way.

“How did you find us?” She whispered to Cadda as she followed.

“We picked up chatter that a couple of high priority prisoners were being transferred from Sahving to Joralla. We took a gamble that it was you.”

They were home! A fractional measure of relief landed, but the only facility this big anywhere in Joralla was the one in the Beeshoya lowland. A behemoth of a place that they’d never dared target. She could hardly believe they’d even gotten this far.

The two women passed another Cardassian corpse. At least they could be certain they were on the right track.

“Are you okay?” Cadda asked, directing all too much focus on Kee and not enough on their surroundings.

“Ilwea’s the one you should be worried about.” She deflected. “If _Toothless_ was telling the truth, he’ll never regain the use of his arms and legs.” She said with a pang in her heart. “If he survives at all.”

Anything Cadda was going to say to that was cut off by the sound of phaser fire up ahead that flashed brightly in the darkness. They picked up their pace. Listening to the cadence of the exchange, Kee identified three separate weapons. Since Ren was alone, that would mean he was outnumbered.

They came around the corner and saw weapons fire passing back and forth through an intersection, but no way to tell who was on what side. More than that, what they saw was less than half of what they heard with the rest of the battle sounds coming from the corridor to the left. From that, she guessed that they had Ren in a crossfire somewhere down the left-hand corridor, but not far.

With Cadda close behind, Kee edged quickly up to the battle, hanging to the right, so she could see if he was truly in the position she expected.

Not far down the corridor, she spotted him, tucked as far behind a bulkhead as he could get, a phaser in each hand, firing in both directions at once. At least this way he couldn’t scold her for not following orders.

Kee motioned to the right and knelt down for Cadda to come in over her head and together they eased around the corner and started firing the moment they could see the gray of a Cardassian uniform.

It was only a split second later that Kee identified the Cardassian as the interrogator, but he pulled back behind a bulkhead before she could land a shot.

Ren didn’t miss a beat, he left him to them and concentrated all his firepower farther down the corridor.

Kee and Cadda tried steadily to hit the interrogator, but he was well hidden behind the bulkhead and they only managed to singe the angled protrusion at the chest of his uniform.

Then, all Kee heard from Cadda was an aborted grunt before she was flung forward into the intersection, sliding to a stop on her back.

Kee turned to see that a third Cardassian had flanked them and knocked Cadda off her feet. In her move to get out of his reach, Kee scrambled back into the intersection, realizing too late that the interrogator would have a clean shot.

She ducked and rolled away from the beam that lanced through the air where she had been while some part of her perceived that Cadda was back on her feet and engaged the new arrival.

The interrogator’s shot missed, but the movement had cost her. Before she could recover, he was on her. He grasped a handful of the neck of her shirt and hauled her to her feet with his phaser hard against the soft space behind her jaw.

He pulled her back so that her face was pressed against his.

“Drop the weapon.” He ordered.

Her grip tightened on her phaser, but in an instant, she saw Cadda slammed into the wall with a phaser jammed under her chin and Ren turn toward them away from his kill to freeze at the sight.

The collar of her shirt twisted tight in his grasp, cutting off her air. Unconsciously, she dropped the phaser and her fingers clawed at the fabric to somehow gain some slack.

“Well, look what we have here.” His breath was hot against her ear even as her pulse thundered through her head. “The two people with the information I’ve been looking for.”

Kee finally managed to edge two fingers below the fabric strangling her and pulled it enough to get a breath.

“You think what I did to your friend was bad,” he growled in her ear, “Wait until you see what I have planned for you.”

She pulled at her neck again to gasp for another breath. “He’ll shoot me before he lets you use me against him.”

She hoped Ren and Cadda would get the message: shoot. Despite the renewed pressure on her neck and the stars beginning to appear in her vision, she pulled forward as if to try to pull away from him.

He counteracted the movement, holding her securely.

Her lungs burned for air, but she pulled harder until she felt he was using his full strength to keep her in place. Then she reversed suddenly, pushing back against him with all the strength she had left.

He stumbled backward, pulling her down with him, but she tucked her body and rolled away far enough for Ren to shoot him in the shoulder.

At the same moment, she heard a second phaser blast as Cadda shoved the phaser away from her neck and spun the Cardassian holding her around so that Ren could shoot him in the back. With the same movement, she wrestled the phaser out of the dying Cardassian’s hand, finished her turn and shot Toothless square in the chest.

The life winked out of him and his body went slack before Kee was back on her feet.

Rage bubbled up within her. It was too quick, too easy, he needed to suffer and die over and over like he had forced Ilwea to. All the various and gruesome ways she could kill him flooded her mind and fury tore through her at the fact that she couldn’t do any of it to him.

She aimed her weapon at his chest and fired, but it wasn’t enough, she continued blast after blast. Cadda’s voice called to her from somewhere nearby, but she ignored her until the Cardassian’s midsection was a burned mass.

“Kee!” Ren’s harsh shout finally startled her out of the trance. “Get moving!”

She blinked, panting hard. They were almost out of time.

The three sprinted back down the corridor, Kee trusting that they knew where they were going.

By her count, they were past Joial’s time estimate. Every second now was uncertain.

Ren and Cadda took a hard left and Kee rounded the corner after them.

She hated leaving the other prisoners behind, but they couldn’t do anything for them now. With the Cardassians hunting for the vital information both she and Ren possessed, they couldn’t risk either of them being captured.

The lights began to blink back on, she hoped they were getting close to their exit. Then the alarm klaxon echoed through the corridor. Force fields and foot soldiers could be next.

They took another turn to the left and at the end of that corridor was a large service-type door. Please be the exit. She appealed to the Prophets.

Just as the thought passed through her mind, the door lifted slowly into the ceiling to reveal Joial and Gam standing on the ramp into a skimmer with their weapons drawn.

Still at a full sprint, Ren, Cadda and Kee dashed into the skimmer, only slowing down once they were past the ramp and dropping to the floor from the momentum.

Kee rolled onto her back, gasping to fill her lungs as she felt the ship accelerate and turn.

Next to her, Cadda pushed herself up off of the floor, “Who’s flying?”

“Naren.” Joial answered dryly.

The two teased back and forth about Naren’s flight aptitude, and Ren said something toward the open cockpit door about ditching the skimmer as soon as the Cardassians were off their tail, but Kee had already turned her focus to Ilwea. Gam and Joial had laid him out across a row of passenger seats, still unconscious.

His head rolled from side to side with inertia from Naren’s evasive flying, so she scooted closer to him and placed a hand on his chest as much to feel his breathing as to keep him from rolling off. With a sigh, she rested her forehead on his shoulder.

* * *

Ilwea survived. But barely. In two days, he hadn’t fully regained consciousness even as they prepared to carry him away by stretcher to a place where he could recover in safety.

_Recover._

He would live, but he would never recover.

Kee sat cross-legged nearby with her head buried in her lap and sobbed.


	14. The Day

_9371, Bajor (2369, Earth Calendar)_

_*thunk*_

Every few seconds Kee heard another dull thunk behind her. Naren and Fenja were sitting opposite each other, practice-throwing a knife back and forth at a pair of trees next to them. Each one would throw the knife, embedding it deep into the tree half an arm’s length away from the other’s head. Then he’d reach up, pull out the knife and throw it back. They’d been at it for nearly an hour.

Kee should probably have put a stop to it by now, but they were rebels, she figured, they didn’t exactly follow safety rules. Soon it would be too dark for them to do it anyway.

Joial was deeply focused on some piece of software he’d been working on, completely oblivious to the lethal game going on a few meters away from him.

Cadda sat with her back against a tree strumming away at her aju that was propped up in her lap. She’d found it close to a year earlier in a trash pile, repaired and restrung it and Naren built her an amp to plug it into. Then she proceeded to pluck away at the thing incessantly until, to the entire cell’s relief, she managed to make some pleasant sounds with it. And more than that, assembled some of those sounds and lyrics into songs.

At the moment, she picked away quietly, repeating the same melancholy tune over and over until she was satisfied with it. Then her smooth alto voice joined in. 

_“They’re lost to the lapse of time,_  
_“As we go on in torment and grief,_  
_“History will forget us too.”_

The lilt of her voice sent chills across Kee’s skin while the words cut right through a deep place in her heart and she had to swallow the lump out of her throat. Cadda had a way of putting words to the things everyone out here felt. Especially emotions no one wanted to face.

Kee tuned out the words, listening only to the mournful sound of her friend’s voice as she kept watch over the small group. As peaceful as it was, she couldn’t let her guard down for a moment. It was only the five of them. They had been doing some recon on their next possible target out near the Ilvian boarder while the rest of the cell stayed behind. They’d already located and sabotaged some sensor hubs the Cardassians continually left in the forest to try to track them, but they could never be sure they’d taken care of all of them.

A series of shadows passed rapidly over them. Then the sudden roar of Cardassian atmospheric fighters cut through the air immediately behind and the rebels were on their feet instantly, ready to bolt.

Five more the ships screamed through the sky in formation overhead, but passed them by, too. Then they heard the thunderous sound of weapons pounding the ground somewhere in a different direction.

At almost the same moment, Kee’s comm unit came to life with a clamor of overlapping voices. Some were in the midst of battle, shouting warnings. Some were calling for help. Others were so chaotic she couldn’t tell what was happening. The seasoned rebels gaped at each other uncertainly.

She needed to make a decision. But what? More distant weapon’s fire had erupted past the horizon in almost every direction. Skimmers and atmospheric fighters filled the skies. What was happening and what they could do about it was unclear.

Then the decision was made for her. A chittering alert sounded on her comm unit. Their allies in Heydern were in trouble.

She was already mapping out the fastest way to get there, but before they could make a move, another unique tone came from the comm, then another and another. Six different calls for help. Then the seventh made her stop cold, it was the safe house in Ilvia. Her mother and brother. Joial’s wife and all the others.

Thinking quickly, she remembered that Ren would have received the same alerts. If her group split up, they could take the two closest, and the rest of the cell could go for the others. “Cadda and Fenja, go to Heydern. The three of us will go to the safe house.”

The small group split immediately, not wasting any time with confirmations or good byes.

* * *

Kee pushed quickly through the forest, Joial in front of her and Naren behind. They moved quickly, taking a direct rout without worrying about being followed. It had been over a year and a half since she left her mother and brother at the safe house.

From the chaotic comm traffic, Kee determined that the Cardassians had begun demolishing public buildings, attacking towns and wiping out entire populations of refugee camps. She finally silenced it when she couldn’t listen anymore.

They would reach the safe house within minutes. It was possible it was already too late, but they pushed on anyway.

After already a day of hiking followed by their mad dash toward the house, the muscles in Kee’s legs shook with exhaustion and each step felt like they would give out. But they didn’t dare slow their pace. With the sun beginning to dip into the horizon, the temperature had come down from the daytime high, but the air in the forest was so damp that sweat dripped out of her hairline and ran down her temples.

Hurriedly descending sheer downward slopes jammed her toes painfully into the front of her boots and made her knees ache. And every step down meant another step up the next steep hill until she could only concentrate on one step at a time.

When they neared the edge of the safe house property there was black smoke rising above the trees, but no sound of gunfire. Kee wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or a bad one.

They continued right through the checkpoint, the sentries having been pulled away from their posts. She caught Joial’s eye, this was definitely a bad sign. The three crept up to the edge of the clearing. Two men lay dead just ahead of them, phasers still in their hands.

The other two sentries, also with phasers, were sprawled on the ground closer to the house. The house itself was burning, half way engulfed with fire licking through the upper windows and charring the pure white siding. Not far from there she saw, with a mixture of relief and dismay, a grouping of people on their knees with their hands above their heads, surrounded by Cardassian soldiers.

Naren counted them, “Twenty-seven people, Tahlla’s not there.”

“Joial, head up that way,” she said, indicating the tree line to their right, “Naren, you circle around that way,” indicating their left, “I’ll stay here. We’ll set up a crossfire. Make sure you have a clean shot, take out as many as you can, then change position. Comms on?” They checked to make sure their comm units were synced before splitting up.

Kee knelt on one knee, concentrated on keeping her breathing even and looked through the sight on her phaser rifle. The Cardassians would be able to locate her position as soon as she began firing, so she’d have two shots before she had to change position, three at the most. To add to the difficulty, some of the soldiers were very close to their captives, she’d have to take them out without hitting the very people she was there to protect.

Joial and Naren confirmed they were in position and each indicated their first two chosen targets.

Taking the lead, she opened fire, hitting her first target and immediately moving to track her second who was already on the move.

The safe house residents scattered, looking for cover, and the Cardassians searched the edge of the clearing for the locations of their attackers.

Kee fired a second time, just barely catching her target on the shoulder. He fell, but tracked the shot back to her and fired, hitting the tree next to her. She shot a third time but missed and quickly moved position, keeping her head below the underbrush. When she looked again, Naren had shot him for her. In her new position she fired two more shots, taking down two more Cardassians.

Kee scanned the area, all of the remaining Cardassians had taken cover and were firing, not at her or her companions, but at the scattering civilians.

She broke out of the tree line and shouted to them “Get down!”

As they dropped to the ground she charged forward with no cover, shooting at the sources of the phaser blasts. Two more beams from her left and right converged on the same locations.

A Cardassian voice broke through on her comm unit calling for retreat, whatever they had been planning to do here wasn’t worth it now. Instead of making their way back toward the entrance to the property, the soldiers simply stood and beamed away.

Momentarily safe, Kee pointed to the back of the property, “Get to the bunker!” As the residents picked themselves up and began running in that direction, she continued forward against the flow of people.

Her mother ran to her, Kee asked, “Where’s Tahlla?”

Her mother grabbed Kee’s shoulders, panicked, “We couldn’t find her we think she’s inside!”

Kee looked at the burning house, “Go! Get to the bunker, I’ll be there soon.” She started moving toward the house, but her mother tried to hold on to her.

“No! You can’t go in there!”

She pulled herself away. “Go!” And rushed through the doors before she thought better of it. She pulled the edge of her shirt around her mouth to block out some of the smoke and ducked down low.

She shouted Tahlla’s name as she moved through the lower level of the house.

The heat hit her first, a dry, smoky heat that threatened to make her faint. She caught the scent of whatever accelerant the Cardassians had doused the place with. Parts of the ceiling had come crashing down, revealing a wall of flames on the upper level and spreading the fire to the ground floor. She could hear more of the structure collapsing farther away and the support structure around her creaked under the strain.

Ignoring the urgent self-preservation impulse, she moved deeper into the house, guessing wildly at how much time she’d have left and where the point of no return would be.

She took a deep breath to call again only to double over, coughing wildly. “Tahlla!” She managed to croak out between coughs.

Finally, near the back of the dining room she heard a faint voice, “Kee!”

After another few seconds of searching, she found the little girl hiding under a heavy table and scooped her up in her arms. Tahlla wrapped her arms and legs around Kee and buried her face in her chest. 

She turned to hurry back only to find more flames than had been there before, but the only other way out of this room was the kitchen which was completely consumed. Deciding she’d rather risk the flames than be crushed by the weakening structure, she took in as deep a breath as her lungs would allow and rushed through, back the way she came.

The weakness in her legs from earlier was all but gone as she ran, even carrying the additional weight of the girl. She slammed into the door to push it open and nearly tumbled down the steps to the grass coughing and gasping for air. The cracking and splitting wood inside stressed how close they’d been to not making it out.

Kee looked around to find that most people had run in the direction of the bunker and she followed with Tahlla still slung around her neck.

Naren was helping shepherd the people in the right direction, she handed Tahlla off to him just as the ground shook so violently it knocked them to their knees. She looked up to see a Cardassian transport lifting into the sky, its phasers pounding the ground below it.

Knowing hand-held weapons wouldn’t do much good against a ship that size, Kee lifted her rifle to the sky anyway and started shooting.

After getting Tahlla into the bunker, Naren joined her, firing up at the ship. More phaser blasts shook the ground and sent chunks of dirt flying around the pair, knocking Kee down to the ground. She rolled onto her back and fired again.

From her prone position she saw a single figure running in their direction from near the house wearing an orange-red vedic’s robe. It was Lorbi, naturally the last to get to safety.

Kee watched in horror as the ship hovered overhead and a beam lanced down directly in his path.

Dirt and rocks erupted into the air amid the glow of the energy beam. She managed to see his body flung backward before the blast blocked him from her view.

When the debris settled, she saw him lying on the ground, but still moving. She pushed herself up off of the ground and ran, staggering as the ground shook again and again. When she reached him, she saw that he had burns covering half of his face, chest and one arm.

“Come on.” She said as she pulled him up, supporting him on her shoulder. Naren continued firing up at the ship as he shadowed the two back to the bunker.

The others helped Lorbi inside while Kee stood outside with Naren.

“That’s everybody but Joial.” He said.

Kee lifted her wrist to her mouth so the comm unit could pick up her voice over the defining sound of the Cardassian phasers systematically destroying the property.

“Joial!” She shouted into it. She hadn’t seen him since they split up.

To her relief his voice came to her through the comm unit, “There’s nobody left over here. Are you at the bunker?”

“Yes.”

“I can’t get to you! I’m pulling back into the forest to take cover. Get inside and close the door!”

She did as he said, pulling the massive door closed behind them and latching it. She leaned her back against the door and looked at the sea of faces looking up at her.

“What’s happening?” Her mother asked.

Still breathing hard, Kee had to swallow before she could manage to speak. “They’re pulling out.” She said and rested her head back against the door to catch her breath.

_End of Section 1_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rewrite of Part 2 is coming soon.
> 
> (Sorry if Cadda's lyrics are kind'a dumb, I'm not a songwriter.)


End file.
